The Original Caesar Salad
by Robert B. Simmonds,
Ph.D. and Cheryl Weller
One of the joys of living
in San Diego is having the ability to grab a little Mexico time without much
travel. You just drive down Interstate 5 to the border, a trip which may take
all of twenty minutes. You can drive through the border crossing at San Ysidro
if you like and find a place to park in Tijuana. The drawback to this option
is the return trip � you have to wait in a dreadful line which may last as
long as two hours, depending on the time of your re-entry, just to be asked by
the U.S. border guard where you were born and whether you have anything to
declare (it may be best not to say, �I declare you people are slow�). The
easier way is to park on the U.S. side of the border for $6.00 all day and to
hoof it across on foot. You still have to answer the same questions when you
come back on foot, but the lines are much shorter and the characters in line
with you much more colorful. (Just don�t say you�re from Guatemala! The
border guards don�t seem to have much of a sense of humor.)
When you cross into
Tijuana you can walk to Avenida Revoluci�n or take a cab for a dollar (or if
you�re naive, five dollars) a person. And there you�ll find the old Hotel
Caesar. Several years ago the bar and dining room in the hotel occupied a
larger space, and then about four years ago it was closed down. During the
years of the closing you were told to go down the block to Caesar�s Palace,
an ornate glassy dining and dancing hall, if you wanted a caesar salad � but
this was a far cry from the original and it wasn�t even made at your table.
And then, a couple of years ago, blessedly, the dining room in the old Hotel
Caesar was reopened, even though it was vastly shrunk. The old black leather
booths from the glory years are still there. And the original caesar salad
hasn�t changed at all. This is the best caesar salad you�ll ever have.
The caesar salad just
celebrated its 75th anniversary on the Fourth of July, 1999. (Bear
in mind, the Society of Epicures in Paris in 1953 called the caesar salad
�the greatest recipe to originate from the Americas in 50 years.�) Caesar
Cardini (1896 - 1956) was an Italian immigrant who owned a small hotel in
Tijuana. The Hollywood crowd and San Diego socialites would drive to Mexico to
party during the Prohibition years, and they often ended up at the Hotel
Caesar for dinner before returning home. On the Fourth of July, 1924, people
arrived in droves for dinner and sent the kitchen into a panic. There
weren�t enough fresh vegetables, other than some salad makings � and
Americans in the 1920's were not overly fond of salads. But, thought Sr.
Cardini, �if it were made at the table...hmmm....� He created a salad that
looked so good that every table of diners ordered one. And over the years the
drive to Tijuana for a caesar salad became a tradition (as we know so well).
Clark Gable, Jean Harlow and W.C. Fields all came, and the gossip columnists
wrote about it in the newspapers. In 1948 the Cardinis moved to Los Angeles to
be closer to their patrons, and soon bottles of caesar salad dressing were
packaged for people all over the world. The company continues today under the
direction of Rosa Cardini, Caesar�s daughter. But the bottled dressing,
while good, is hardly the real thing.
On our most recent day
trip to Tijuana we went to the Hotel Caesar and ordered guacamole with
tortilla chips, margaritas and caesar salads. The salad is made right at your
table by the experienced waiter. And it�s luscious enough to bring tears to
your eyes. We watched the production carefully. And you can make the same
thing right at home.
The Original Caesar
Salad
(serves 4 to 6)
Ingredients:
separated leaves of 2
large heads of romaine lettuce
2 large cloves of garlic,
pressed in a garlic press
salt
one can of anchovies,
drained
3/4 cup of extra virgin
olive oil
3 limes
2 tsp Dijon mustard
2 coddled eggs (i.e., boiled
for exactly one minute)
Worcestershire sauce
hot pepper sauce
2 cups of freshly toasted
croutons
� cup parmesan cheese
peppercorns in a grinder
Method:
Separate the romaine lettuce
leaves, wash them gently, and reserve 6 to 8 whole unblemished leaves per person
for the salad. Pat or shake the leaves dry and refrigerate until it�s time to
make the salad. In a large bowl combine the garlic, half the anchovies and salt;
press them together with a fork until the anchovies are broken up. Add the olive
oil. Whisk in the juice from three limes (the waiter covered the limes with a
cloth to catch the seeds). Add the Dijon mustard. Add only the yolks from the
two coddled eggs (discard the whites). Throw in a couple of dashes of
Worcestershire sauce and a dash of pepper sauce. Mix the dressing together. Now
throw in the romaine lettuce leaves, scooping them in the dressing until they
are well covered. Throw in the croutons, sprinkle with the parmesan cheese and
grind some pepper on top of the bowl of salad. If you like, you can top each
serving with two or three of the remaining anchovies.
An additional note:
This is the observed recipe from the Hotel Caesar circa 1999. Legend has
it that the original recipe from the 1920's did not contain anchovies (although
Worcestershire sauce has anchovies as one of its ingredients). And you may want
to think about adding raw egg yolks to your salad dressing; if you�re
concerned about the possibility of salmonella, an egg substitute may work for
you. In any case, this is a simple recipe, and a fine way to get a quick taste
of one of Mexico�s greatest culinary contributions.