North Indian Chicken Caesar Salad: Celebrate Julius Caesar's Birthday July 12 or 13

Food writer Deeksha Sarin's online evaluation, "7 Best Caesar Salad Places In Delhi NCR," was published, with an April 9, 2018, update, on NDTV Food, a lifestyle subsidiary of NDTV's (New Delhi Television Limited). She awarded first place to Diggin Cafe in New Delhi's Anand Lok Shopping Centre. Sarin noted the "copious" Parmesan cheese shavings that top Diggin's Caesar Salad, which, like the original Caesar Salad, is vegetarian.

Second-place Big Chill Cafe in Khan Market offers classic Caesar Salad, albeit with iceberg rather than romaine lettuce, and Chicken Caesar Salad, with iceberg lettuce and chicken bits. Sarin extolled the dressing's creaminess.

Third-place Cafe Diva in Rama Krishna Puram's Sangam Courtyard characterizes "our version of Caesar's salad" as a "homemade dressing with extra garlic (minus the anchovies)" over romaine leaves. Asparagus, chicken and bacon are available as add-ons. (Note: Cesare Cardini's original recipe does not include anchovies; the salad's Worcestershire sauce contributes the anchovy-like taste.) Sarin emphasized the "subtle garlicky flavour" that will appeal to garlic lovers.

Content strategist Nivea Sapra's "10 Places To Get The Best Caesar Salad In Delhi!," published on Dfor Delhi's website, July 4, 2019, concurred with Sarin's placement of Diggin Cafe as the best Caesar Salad provider in New Delhi. Her list gave locations and hours for each entry but offered no descriptions of the winning Caesar Salads.

Deeksha Sarin's best Caesar Salad list considered the National Capital Region (NCR). The planning region encompasses the 11 administrative districts of the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi as well as districts in the surrounding northern states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Seventh-place Salad Company's location in Haryana state's Gurugram only offers home delivery. Gurugram lies near the Delhi-Haryana border, at a distance of approximately 19 miles (30 kilometers) southwest of New Delhi.

Sarin notes Chicken Caesar Salad as Salad Company's "best seller." The salad features "generous portions of chicken."

In her travels across India, my sister appreciated the subcontinent's frequently faithful reproduction of Cesare Cardini's classic Caesar Salad. His original recipe called for romaine lettuce, coddled eggs and garlic croutons drizzled with a Worcestershire sauce dressing.

Indian eateries also made pleasing additions to the classic vegetarian recipe. For instance, cherry tomatoes brighten the presentation by contrasting attractively with egg whiteness, crouton browness and romaine greenery.

Non-vegetarian versions of Caesar Salad abound across India. In North India, my sister particularly noted an emphasis on bacon bits, chicken bites or chicken strips.

North Indian Chicken Caesar Salad recipes do not necessarily feature Indian spices. The cooking of the chicken --- whether baked, broiled, grilled, roasted, steamed, tandooried, etc. --- might, or might not, include spices.

Her experiences with airport food on her many travels inspired Jill Wilcox, Canadian food writer and owner of Jill's Table in London, Ontario, to create a Chicken Caesar Salad recipe with a nuanced Indian-styled flavor. Her Indian Chicken Caesar Salad With Naan Croutons first appeared in The Londoner's June 17, 2017, issue and was republished in the June 18, 2019 issue. The recipe flavors grilled chicken with cumin, garam masala or curry powder, ginger and turmeric.

My family's North Indian Chicken Caesar Salad recipe reflects the colorful, tasteful version of the classic Caesar Salad that my sister encountered in North India. We add cherry tomatoes and chicken bites or strips to create our Chicken Caesar Salad from our classic Caesar Salad, which I shared in "Beware the Ides of March Meal: Caesar or Brutus Salad, Cleopatra's Dulcis Coccora, Caesar Cocktail."

Our Indian-spiced variation resembles Jill Wilcox's recipe. Cumin, garam masala and turmeric flavorfully accent the salad. A sprinkling of ginger flavors the chicken bites or strips.

Another variation involves serving classic Caesar Salad as a side dish for golden-baked chicken breasts. Diners have the option of creating their own Chicken Caesar Salad by cutting chicken chunks for topping the salad.

A favorite variation is substituting plant-based grilled chicken strips for chicken strips. This keeps Chicken Caesar Salad as vegetarian as the classic Caesar Salad recipe.

1 package Valley Fresh 100% Natural White Chicken Cuts

2 eggs

2 heads of organic romaine lettuce;

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon garam masala (or curry powder)

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

peppercorns, freshly ground

1 lemon, for squeezing over lettuce leaves

   Or: 3 Tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/4 pound Parmesan cheese for fresh grating or shredding (about 1 to 1/4 cups)

2 cups toasted, garlic-seasoned croutons

Ground ginger, for sprinkling

1. Place oil and spices (ground cumin, garam masala, or curry powder, and turmeric in a small bowl. Whisk together. Set aside.

2. Place precooked chicken strips in bowl. Set in refrigerator until serving time.

3. Coddle eggs: bring water to boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Use large serving spoon to lower eggs carefully into center of saucepan. Be sure that eggs are completely covered by water.

Boil eggs for one minute.

Remove saucepan from burner. Transfer eggs to bowl of ice for one minute of cooling. Set aside.

4. Place romaine leaves in large serving bowl. Drizzle with half of spiced oil, i.e., 1/4 cup. Gently blend spiced oil into leaves with rolling motion of salad utensils.

5. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper and rest of spiced oil, i.e., 1/4 cup. Lightly toss.

6. Squeeze lemon over leaves. Sprinkle Worcestershire sauce. Lightly toss.

7. Break eggs over salad. Lightly toss.

8. Add cheese. Lightly toss.

9. Top with croutons. Lightly blend.

Refrigerate until serving time.

At serving time: Transfer salad to dinner plates. Top with chicken cuts. Lightly sprinkle ground ginger over chicken cuts.

Julius Caesar was born in July in the year 100 BCE. The actual date in July is given as the 12th, the 13th or as either the 12th or the 13th.

Roman culture has appeared, across the millennia, as exhibiting excessive consumption of alcohol and food. Contrastingly, Julius Caesar was known for favoring simple food and disfavoring alcohol, as reiterated by Sarah Bond, assistant professor in Classics at the University of Iowa, in her Aug. 16, 2017, post on Forbes, "You Are What You Eat: The Politics of Eating On Campaign From Ancient Rome to Trump." Professor Bond recalled the famous quip by Marcus Porcius Cato (95 BCE-April 46 BCE), known as Cato the Younger, that his political opponent was "the only man who undertook to overthrow the state when sober," as reported by Roman historian Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (ca. 69 CE-after 122 CE) in The Lives of the Twelve Caesars (Rolfe translation [1914], LIII, page 73).

The elegant simplicity of classic Caesar Salad and its non-vegetarian variation, Chicken Caesar Salad, accords with the healthy, simple eating habits that are attributed to ancient Rome's accomplished, aristocratic general and statesman. In fact, romaine, the name of the salad's signature lettuce, reflects its transmission to Europe from ancient Rome, according to food and gastronomy polymath Alan Davidson's (March 30, 1924-Dec. 2, 2003) The Oxford Companion to Food. The leafy vegetable's English name translates from its Italian name, lettuga romana.

An imaginative meal, such as food director and photographer Gus Filgate's meat and seafood platter, serves as an alternative to celebrating Julius Caesar's birthday with Caesar Salad or Chicken Caesar Salad. Filgate filmed Last Suppers with attractively displayed shrimp, mussels and a mutton chop for his vision of Julius Caesar's last meal. Ancient Romans daily accessed the Mediterranean Sea's rich abundance and variety of fish and shellfish, according to Alberto Lunetta's "Dining with Julius Caesar, a Journey Through Roman Diet and Meal Traditions," published in the Sep. 6, 2019, issue of Naval Air Station (NAS) Sigonella's Signature.

My special thanks to talented photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the Internet.

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Diggin @diggincafe. "Are you all set to start your week on a refreshing note, dig into our Caesar salad today! Picture credits: The Tasting Fork #Diggin #DigginDiaries #Cafe #Delhi." Twitter. Nov. 13, 2017.

Availlable @ https://www.facebook.com/diggincafe/posts/1520899758008191

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