On lettuce

I woke up this morning with a new idea about how to cut the Icelandic lettuce/cabbage thing that is sold in the stores here. Because unlike the lettuce and cabbage I am used to, this leafy vegetable is not round. Instead, it shaped like celery bunches. One could say then that it is like green leaf lettuce, but that is not really accurate either, because the whole thing is incredibly tightly packed together, and each leaf has a huge thick white spine that starts already at the top of the leaf. By about 2/3 down, that is all there is, just the thick white part. I have no idea if I am supposed to eat that part or not. 

With lettuce in California, I always knew which parts to eat. I even learned a great technique for removing the central stem from Iceberg lettuce (pretty simple, you just whack it hard on the flat part). Greenleaf is almost entirely edible from tip to bottom, though usually the tips of the outer leaves are a bit too thick, whereas the leaves toward the center are more delicate and more flavorful. 

I am sure this sounds ridiculous to most, but figuring out how to cut up lettuce/cabbage here in Iceland has actually got me thinking. 

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