Today’s menu: pepperoni pizza, carrots, peach fruit cup, ranch dressing, milk
When I’ve eaten pizza in the past, commenters have mentioned that when they were kids they would put the ranch dressing on the pizza. I decided to give that a shot (see last picture).
Results: pizza of marginal flavor turned foul. I took the first bite of the ranch covered pizza and the taste combination was so foreign, so disgusting that I winced. I had to literally wipe off the ranch from the other part of the pizza. Thankfully I didn’t put the dressing on the whole pizza or I wouldn’t have had much of a lunch. I don’t have a clue how and why that would be appealing to a child or anyone! Note: I have been known to enjoy ranch dressing on salad…just not on pizza. Yuck.
PS. I know that the ranch is meant for the carrots. I did it because many readers and also kids like to put ranch on their pizza. I was trying it out. And I will never do that again.
I've noticed a lot of people commenting that the ranch on pizza idea seems disgusting…I live in California, and it is a pretty common occurrence here…. most of our pizza places actually offer ranch packets when you order. It's something I have grown up with… personally I like it… unless the pizza is something, or from somewhere, spectacular.
The ingredient list on the 'ranch' dressing is scary. Carboxymethyl cellulose for one . . . .
to Firefly : please avoid generalizing about food in "Europe" – that continent has a lot of different countries in which fries are served and eaten differently!! Sorry, I don't usually get annoyed at commenters, but I hate it when things are taken out of context or generalized.
to Anonymous at May21 4:57am : thank you for putting the "eating fries with mayonnaise" habit back in context!
May I add that where I come from (central France) fries are usually eaten on their own- a lot of French people I know actually think it's gross to eat fries with any kind of sauce! they like their fries just by themselves 😉 so to see Ranch dressing on pizza or to think about putting any sauce on fries…eek! it's all about different eating habits, for sure!!!
Otherwise, Mrs. Q- keep on the good work! I really enjoy reading your blog on a daily basis (although I agree with those who say that there is a crazy volume of guest blogging these days- posts are interesting but it's a lot to "digest" at once!)
Ranch with pizza is delicious! It must be the pizza. Besides, I think you put TOO much ranch on, that's why.
I used to do that too. it made the pizza marginally more tolerable.
@Jgold
Yeah, I find it rather unfortunate that they serve them such low grade food. I love your statement about school vs. military food, perhaps they do expect kids to just not eat. It is quite funny that the military did accuse school systems of childhood obesity because much of the food served on the boat is way unhealthier than anything served at schools. Not to mention that they are served this quality of food while the boat is at the pier, which means they have access to all of the fresh produce. This is why I make it a point to make my husband a fresh healthy dinner when I can provide it.
@Mrs.Q
I do not find this entry irrelevant. Food preference definitely plays a part in the problems with school lunches.
The book "Eat This Not That" says that ranch dressing is one of the worst things you can keep in your refrigerator!
I think it starts at school b/c my son wants to put ketchup on ham and cheese sandwiches. I went on a field trip and they all were doing it. I couldn't figure why they even had ketchup packets in the lunchbag!!
being a native Texan, we put Ranch on probably way too much. I admit to eating my pizza with Ranch and lots of appetizers that you can order at a grill and bar come with ranch as the dipping sauce. Anything from a typical side salad to fried cheese, cheese fries, buffalo wings or chicken tenders…ranch is almost more typical with a savory food than with veggies or a salad. I really do think this is a cultural thing. :-/
For me, the only time it is acceptable to have ranch on pizza is if you are eating buffalo chicken pizza. Then it makes since, because buffalo wings are good with ranch, you know?
So dramatic about food combinations, from these comments it seems like whoever likes ranch on anything other than lettuce and carrots is a terrible person.
Jeez how about trying new things, don't blast it before you try it. People are really aghast at this, try eating awful Dominoe's or Pizza Hut pizza without something like that on the side.
Try new things!
Mayo and ketchup isn't bad, try it.
You should try ranch dressing with hot sauce to dip a pizza into. It's really good. 🙂
I put ranch on pepperoni pizza. It's good. Add a cold glass of chocolate milk and you're set!
Ranch on cold pizza I just graduated high school I am allowed to eat like a collage student) is better it makes the crust taste better, your problem is that that does not deserve to be called pizza
On the comments about college food, I have to agree with how terrible everything is. I was a part of our student food committee and when a student asked for more vegetarian options, the cafeteria manager stated that there were already plenty of options (salad bar, tofu stir fry). The representatives from Chartwells couldn't really give two s**ts about what the students are eating as long as they are making money. The vegetables (unless they are from the salad bar) are never fresh- always frozen and bland. The grains that they serve are the same- very bland. Almost everything is fried (chicken nuggets 3 meals a week, 2 different types of fries each day, corn dogs, french toast sticks…) and there is hardly any variety. It's really sad to see that I'm paying around $3,000 (an individual meal swipe is $10!) and in return am receiving really awful food. And things will never change while I'm in school because there will always be students willing to eat it.
hey at least u tried it…i love it but…oh well!
My students will dip their pizza into ranch dressing. Of course, they'll also dip their cooked green beans into BBQ sauce….LOL! In the area where I student taught, students would eat their french fries with mayo….yuck!
On some 'White' pizzas Ranch is the base, instead of tomato paste/sauce. If it's the right White pizza it is actually pretty good, however, you really can't taste the ranch, it just gives a little moisture to keep the cheese from gluing to the crust. White pizza with grilled chicken, mushrooms, artichoke and bacon is one of my favorites. HOWEVER, dipping in ranch never made sense to me.
the ranch just makes it worse. At our school (this is just without the ranch) people simply call the pizza "Barf on cardboard"
We used to put the school's generic Italian dressing on the pizza or dip our pretzel sticks into it (we never had ranch in elementary school).
Another weird school food combination? French fries and cream cheese.
As for the college food comments? Ugh. I'm glad I'm a commuter to my college. My bento box is my favorite investment nowadays.
I'm from Brooklyn, and I'm pretty sure there's a law against putting ranch dressing on pizza. Maybe the areas where this is prevalent have less flavorful pizza, because the sauces here are so well-spiced and cheesy that ranch dressing (or any sauce) wouldn't really add much to the flavor.
As a former waitress I can tell you Ranch is the most popular of all dressings and people will put it on anything – not just salads, veggies or wings – it is digusting how much of it they want and eat. Pizza? Yes Fries? Absolutely Sandwiches [and they dip it?] Seen that too many times – They should have an ad that says "Ranch – it's what's for dinner." I can't keep it in my house because not only is it unhealthy it is just gross.
And it isn't stereotyping to tell you that the people I served copious amounts of ranch to were heavy, on their way to obese or morbidly obese more often than not.