It's treated with something to "retard spoilage" which makes it taste like chemicals!.....blech!

Totally agree on the ice tea thing! It better be brewed fresh! No restaurant would ever serve instant coffee...

Bagged lettuce started as a high end restaurant product, beginning, I believe, with baby lettuces. The "bags" are really more like small bales. High end grocery stores started offering the same product in bulk bins, fill your own bag, but the delicate leaves only lasted a day or two. They bags filled with ... nitrogen? I think? ... came after that and were so successful that they generalized it to other kinds of lettuce.

We usually get boxes, but I live close to where the greens are grown, so I'm more likely to get it fresh, and I always inspect the to see if they've been out too long and damp inside or starting to go. I love baby lettuces and boxes and bags are the only way to get them easily. I also love the wild arugula, baby spinach, "Power to the Greens" from Trader Joe's which has kale, spinach and chard.

None of these are "dried up" or "pale". Generally, a bag will prevent lettuce from drying out, but being in the open in a bin in a cooler with an evaporator will dry it.

Are you talking about iceberg? If so, I totally agree that it should be washed, torn and served immediately to retain its crunch--and the soft, outer leaves should be removed. OTOH, I love Mesclun, whether it's at home, or in a restaurant, and don't mind the bag at all.

I think it is really easy to let bagged lettuce lose it's prime freshness and many restaurants seem to. But I'm with Plllog, I love some of the boxed lettuce, if it's nice and fresh. I often rinse it and pick through it, put it through the salad spinner and wrap it losely in a linen towel, then into a larger bag. It keeps fresh a bit longer, I find.

I like getting lettuce at the Farmers' Markets, and I think restaurants should also do this (many do). I've bought Mesclun in a bag, but arugula is very easy to grow, if you like it.

I agree about the iced tea - it must be fresh brewed and never instant, although my mother used instant tea, except when I visited, as I would brew my own. I seldom drink tea in restaurants here, except for hot tea, but then I also seldom go to restaurants.

And bagged french fries, bagged pre-cut onions, pre-peeled garlic --------

dcarch

I agree that pre-cut lettuce in a bag and instant iced tea should not be in a restaurant. I won't personally use precut garlic and onions. I have no problems with buying my own bagged full-leaf mesclun, arugula and baby kale, even though I know it may not be as fresh and may be subject to a treated wash --- with these loose whole leaf products, unless I am growing my own or shopping at the farmer's market, it's not a big issue with me.

Talking about bagged foods: I tried using a bag of shredded Romano cheese for a quicker version of a pasta recipe one time. It just clumped and did not melt. Never again.

I taste that chemical taste, too, with the bagged lettuce. The box lettuce and spinach, not at all. I don't know why they treat them differently.

Sally

Sally, it's probably the brand. The "chemical taste" is probably that stuff they use at salad bars and fast food joints that prevents oxidation. That's especially true if you're talking about iceberg (which I wouldn't eat from a bag either!). The baby lettuces, mesclun, spinach, etc., are just washed. As it's bagged, they suck the air out and replace it with nitrogen (I'm pretty sure it's nitrogen), which is a component of air which doesn't interact with the leaves, but tastes like air. :)

Actually air is more than 3/4 nitrogen.....
Iceberg lettuce oxidizes very quickly when cut, like apples and pears do. If you treat them with a preservative to slow the oxidization, it tastes nasty. The bags that appear expanded most likely are pouffed with nitrogen, but most of the bags I see are flat to take up less space....and depend on preservatives to keep the lettuce from browning