If there was an “it girl” food of the summer, a Caesar salad, a side of fries and a dry martini would easily secure the spot this year.
As one viral meme about the restaurant order goes, “Are you depressed or do you just really need a dry martini, a Caesar salad and a side order of fries?”
Sometimes, people sub in a diet or regular Coke, but the salty, umami-laden Caesar, and the carby goodness of the fries are the anchor of the meal.
“The new live laugh love just dropped,” Vox writer Rebecca Jennings joked of the meme last week on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
On TikTok, a search for “Caesar salad and fries” yields more than 60.3 million posts with people ― mostly young women ― singing the praises of the “elite” meal: “The feminine urge to get a Caesar salad with a side of fries,” one women says while she eats in a clip that has over one million views.
“I need an espresso martini, Caesar salad, truffle fries, and a forehead kiss with $10k and some peonies on the side. Nothing too crazy,” another woman joked on X.
Why are we all collectively yearning for this relatively basic restaurant order?
To some extent, it’s a continuation of Girl Dinner, the trend from last year in which women cobbled together a few items ― a little wedge of parmesan reggiano, some olives, some chips and salsa leftover from your last Trader Joe’s run ― and calling it a meal. (As some noted, some version of “Girl Dinner” has existed in other cultures ― tapas, mezze and banchan ― for centuries.)
Like Girl Dinner, this trend is weirdly gendered. Old stereotypes die hard and salad is traditionally associated with women in the same way a good steak is associated with dudes. Though fun fact: In the post-war 1940s, there was a moment where salad-making was considered quite masculine, at least by some food writers.
“A good salad maker must have meticulousness, patience, cleanliness and a very alert sense of touch and taste,” Mario Thomas, Playboy magazine’s food and drink editor, wrote in his column around that time. “For some reason, it takes a man to master this really fine art.”
Also like Girl Dinner, the Caesar/cocktail/fries meal has cost-effectiveness going for it: Generally speaking, it’s cheaper to buy a side salad and side fry versus an entree.
“I don’t want to spend $30 or $40 on a main…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Women…