h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Lettuce - A87718936
Author: shagbark - U170775

A companion piece to the Vegetable list.

Good Entry Shagbark


Do you know the story of the Flopsy Bunnies?


here is the full text

http://www.archive.org/stream/thetaleoftheflop14220gut/14220.txt

Lettuce has a soporific effect which is scientifically proven.

Lettuce spray

Worth mentioning the name often used for the lettuce you can cut, and then wait to regrow and cut again, which I've always known as 'cut and come again' lettuce....

No mention of the widespread use of lettuce along with other vegetables to make a sandwich look more healthy? Its the texture with the crunch that works in sandwichs Or, indeed added into a in order to reduce the calories (everyone knows adding salad things to meat, like burgers and kebabs, lowers the amount of total calories, really... I swear it does... ) I've seen some unknown (to me), varities (or names), of lettuce appear in teh supermarkets of recent years... I strongly suspect many of these are utterly made up 'varities', as when I've tried them I've been most unimpressed and just return to the simple cut and come again or the romaine (which is my fav) Lettuce spray

Little gem is also very commonly seen in supermarkets nowadays, and whilst you can't cover every variety (I'm a Webbs man) I think these minature lettuces, which can be grown on window ledges might be worth a mention

This is cool.

Leaf lettuce from the garden can be wilted with a spoonful of oil, too, for a delicious side dish.

I had one quibble:

>>Many times it is sold unmixed, expecting the user to decide what to add to it. <<

I think you need to say that in a different way, since the lettuce isn't allowed to expect anything except to be eaten, maybe. How about 'Many time, it is sold unmixed, so that the user can decide what to add to it.'?

Under uses I would also list garnish. Lots of things come served on a lettuce leaf simply for presentation.

I was going to mention sandwiches (and wraps), but 2Legs beat me to it. Shredded lettuce is also good with several Mexican foods, tacos and tostadas come to mind.

Is there some specific criteria a plant has to meet to be a lettuce? There are lots of greens that get used in salads, I was just wondering what makes one a lettuce and another not.

Lettuce varieties are all members of the Lactuca sativa family.

here is a good website:

http://www.kitchenproject.com/history/Salads_Lettuce/Lettuce/index.htm

Other salad leaves can be the baby leaves from all sorts of other edible plants.

I got back to this and changed a few things.
how does it look?

From the last reference article I got the part about The Egyptian god. This led me to do a little more research and the result is the new section about Lettuce through the ages.

and I have put the reference to the Flopsy bunnies in that section.

Looks good, odd fact i found - apparently lettuce smoke (no particular variety) is more dangerous than many other organic matter smokes - i found this out after getting interested when told by the beeb that even vegtables produced dangerous smoke when burnt (evidently, you cant get that much smoke off a lettuce...not to say that you're doing it wrong)

Green tobacco won't burn well either, it needs to be dried.
I seem to remember back in my youth trying to use dried lettuce instead of straw in starting a campfire. I especially did not like the odor it gave off.

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