I think it depends on the priciness of the restaurant, honestly. In a mid-priced or inexpensive place I'd expect just dressing, but in a high end joint I'd be insulted if the Caesar didn't have anchovies and egg and raw garlic. And be made in a big bowl right at my table by a skilled waiter, damn it!

But then, I'm in the tiny monority who like anchovies and would happily eat them at breakfast.

Yeah, the caesar salad has been horribly bastardized and nobody anymore even knows what the original was all about. They see Caesar and they think romaine lettuce, big croutons, grilled chicken and cheesy dressing. It's sad but true. I'm a big anchovy fan and a big original caesar fan, and even five or so years ago I had to ask specially for anchovies to the delight of waiters and consternation of other patrons. The only way around it is to add a big long explanation to the menu and even then you're going to piss some people off. Of course, some people are going to even get mad about the absence of tomatos - but, you know, the hell with some people.

I'v heard a few times recently that a true Caesar, the way it was originally made, was raw or coddled egg, and anchovy just rubbed into the suface of the wooden bowl. Just rubbed for the flavor - there was no anchovy in the actual salad. The anchovy oil, the parmesan cheese, the raw egg, and some other ingredient which escapes me right now...those 4 things made up the taste of the dressing. Then romaine and croutons were added. Very simple. I don't know whether or not it's true, but I guess it could be. In any case, I am a huge fan of anchovies, and we eat Caesar salad once a week just so I can get me some chovies.

iconomy, I think it was the raw garlic that was rubbed in the bowl, which used to be a fairly common trick.

I had 'real' Ceasar salad with anchovies in it last summer, and everything else pales in comparison. Does anyone actually notice, or is it actually listen on the menu?

As for the raw eggs, I'd lump that in with the society's general phobia of all things raw and germy.

You're probably right about that, cali.

This is the way I remember Caesar salad being prepared, tableside, in a nice restaurant that my parents used to take me to when I was little. It was a real event!

Count me as one who never knew what constituted a real caesar salad, and now that I do, I won't be having one. :D

I order "caesar salad" at Wendy's to avoid picking out the tomatoes, since I hate raw tomatoes.

The Joy of Cooking version, which I've done many times to great effect, except, now that I'm looking at it, with more garlic, more anchovies and more cheese. You can also coddle the egg by boiling it for like 1.5 minutes:

Leave 1 clove peeled & sliced garlic in 1/2 c. olive oil for 24 hours.
Saute 1 c. cubed french bread in 2 tbsp. of the oil.
Break 2 heads Romaine lettuce into 2" lengths. Wash, dry & place in salad bowl. Sprinkle over it 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp dry mustard, a generous grating black pepper, 5 filets of anchovy, cut up small or mashed to a paste, a few drops Worcestershire sauce. Add 3 tbsp wine vinegar and the remaining garlic oil. Drop one egg from the shell onto the ingredients in the bowl. Squeeze the juice of one lemon over the egg. Add the croutons and 3 tbsp of parmesan cheese. Toss well and serve at once.

You know, if you keep coddling those eggs, they'll never be able to live on their own and make adult decisions.

matildaben, hahahahaha! I love you.

Boring, real Caesar salads are heavenly! Don't be scared by the anchovies; I'm not an anchovy fan, myself, generally, but they are very useful as an ingredient, and a Caesar salad is nothing at all like eating lettuce with salty fish sprinkled on top of it. You really ought to try a good one... unless you detest garlic, and really just prefer very muted flavors. In which case, not so much.

yes, the anchovies just make it deliciously salty - it's different than salt. It's good.