There's salad and salad....

A sign in a local shop had be puzzled and bemused. when I got home, I grabbed my Oxford English Dictionary and looked up the definition of salad. This is what it said...

"salad.. a dish of raw vegetables...or fruit..... served with dressing..."

which is what I always thought.

The sign?

"Introducing our new VEGETARIAN salads"
So what is raw veg and fruit then???

I would go in and ask, that's a bit odd!!

"vegetarian salads" - a tautology Unless it is to differentiate between pre-packed salads containing various types of meat?

Ahh... just remembered.... "beef" tomatoes!!!!

A lot of people serve animal protein with a salad, and I have been known to serve a warm one, so although the dictionary definition may be correct I don't think it is the present day understanding of the words, A Salad.

The dictionary doesn't specifiy what kind of a dressing a salad should have. They could put anything non-vegetarian in there The classic example is the Caesar salad, which usually has anchovies in the dressing, and is therefore not suitable for vegetarians. Many restaurants do seem to be under the impression that anchovies, and other fish, are in fact vegetables. I think not!

Suppose it depends on if you are referring to a vegetable or group of vegetables and fruit as a salad, or a dish principally based on vegetables but containing other food such as meat, fish, cheese or eggs and may be dressed with almost anything but much of the time the dressing contains eggs, usually raw.

My dictionary gives a very loose definition and mentions it can also refer to cooked vegetables served in a dressing such as Potato Salad, or served with meats such as a Ham Salad or Prawn Salad. It is also sometimes used to refer to the vegetable part of a mixed main meal where the vegetable may be raw, cooked or sometimes pickled mixed vegetable.