Salad - Oh Bother - Lettuce too big to eat

Why can't restaurants cut dinner salads into bite size pieces?

You know as well as I that we are all trying to eat our 5 fruits and vegetable servings every day, Right?  Well, at a restaurant that means getting a salad, either as an entree or as a opener dish.  So, why is it that the lettuce (or spinach or other greens) is almost never cut into bite size pieces?  I just got back from 5 days of vacation - mostly eating out for dinner.

Old manners books say that we should never cut our salad with a knife and fork while eating, but they also say that the salad should already be bite-sized.  Newer etiquette books and videos tell us that we can cut one bite of salad at a time (if our knife is stainless steel, not silver) and eat that before eating the next bite.  Neither of these methods works for me in today's average restaurants.  Here is why...

Our server brings us a salad of large pieces of greens on a very flat plate.  There might be a few carrots or wedges of tomato and slices of cucumber or some croutons, or maybe not.  On the top center is a very large dollop of dressing.  So, what shall we do?

The salad needs to be tossed to spread the dressing around, and the leaves need to be cut to fit into our mouths.  If we cut just one piece of lettuce at a time, there is no way to spread the dressing around.  If we try to 'toss' the salad, we'll be tossing it all over the table but very little will stay on the flat plate.  We can either stuff the large leaves into our mouth and eat the dressing alternately as large amounts followed by small tastes.

So, let us ignore the etiquette police and just cut the whole salad.  Grabbing our knife and fork firmly, we start cutting across the salad as if we were dicing an onion or cutting a piece of meat up for a small child. Of course, every slice sends bits of salad off the plate and onto the table, sometimes carrying dressing with it.  So using your  knife and fork, scoop that errant salad back onto the plate, folding it over top to spread the dressing.  Do this again about 5 times in this direction, then rotate the plate 90 degrees and do it 5 times more.  A bit more folding of salad with knife and fork, and we have a very nicely chopped salad with evenly spread dressing, half of which has spent some time on the table.

Of course, you and I could just order a chopped salad, if it's available. I'm fascinated by the fact that getting a salad that is actually ready to eat requires a new special term.  Shouldn't all salads be ready to eat?  Is there anyone out there that prefers the really big pieces of lettuce?  Please let me know.