Celery has evil anise flavor. I can't stand it in anything.
Fennel has an anise flavor (and looks like celery), but I have never noticed an anise flavor in celery.
I like celery plain with just a little salt, or as a cream cheese delivery system. I also like it cooked in chicken soup, use it when I'm making stock, and this one chicken dish I make. I will take Beverly's cooked celery.
I love peanut butter, but I do not like putting it on things like celery and apples. I put it on bread and on chocolate, or bake it into cookies, as God intended.
You may have my cooked celery, Cindy. I pick out the solids, once the dish is finished. Cooked celery "solids" are...um. Off-putting. The flavor, though, is wonderful. We do the same with onion solids. H either purees onion before he adds it to things--actually I prefer he halves the onion if possible and then removes the solids from my serving. I react horribly to onion solids, though I can get away with foods flavored with onion. Celery doesn't provoke a physical reaction but it's still very unpleasant cooked.
I don't particularly mind celery, but iceberg lettuce is a styrofoam abomination, and should be banished.
At last, an opinion that brings us all together.
Iceberg lettuce has a place- with tuna salad or bleu cheese. I also like cooked celery, and even cream of celery soup, but I do not care for fennel/anise.
I also am a weirdo, because I prefer most vegetables cooked or wilted, included lettuce (except the aforementioned iceberg with tuna salad), In general I just prefer warm food-- I used to nuke potato and macaroni salads because I just wanted them warm.
I love a really crisp crunchy piece of iceberg lettuce on a cheeseburger just off the grill.
I like iceberg lettuce on BLTs, where flaccid lettuce has no place, but I like it for the crunch, and the bacon and (good, summer) tomatoes already provide enough flavor to go around. I also like it on burgers and on tuna (probably on all sandwiches, now that I think about it).
Wedge salad!!! Also, I'm good with celery.
