I love nothing better than fresh spinach. When we were growing up, my mom served us spinach out of a can and I thought that was what spinach was. Eeuuww. Slimy.

When I was 14, I got my first job at the Magic Pan, a restaurant in Woodfield Mall. I was hired as a bus girl but eventually learned every position in the restaurant except server and bartender because I wasn’t old enough. I was even added to the opening team to help open new restaurants. It was so much fun. But I digress.

Back to spinach.

They served a spinach salad at the Magic Pan. One of the jobs of the salad department was to pick the spinach. i.e. pick the stems off each leaf. There were days when I went to work and that’s all that I did for hours.

So imagine my complete horrification to go into a restaurant, any restaurant these days, and be served a bowl of stems.

See them?

Ick.

I rarely order a spinach salad in a restaurant but if I do, I leave a pile of stems on the table when I leave. LOL!

And so I confine my spinach eating mostly to home where I am in control of those dastardly stems. They never make it into my bowl and go in the garbage where they belong.

If I found a restaurant where they picked their spinach, I’d shout their name from the rooftops. If you know of one, let me know! I’d love to order a spinach salad in a restaurant and find it stemless. 🙂