Green is Good

(Taken from http://www.cbc.ca/inthekitchen/2011/11/tossed-green-salad-with-a-classic-olive-oil-vinaigrette.html)

         What is the first course of the meal before you have the second one? I’ll give you a hint… It is a savory leafy vegetable dish, light in taste and often served with dressings. Yes, it’s salad. It is a simple dish with remarkable tastes! Well, you must be thinking why I have chosen this food as one of the dishes that is new to me. Curious? Get your reading glasses ready and start reading.

Funny story, I wasn’t a salad lover before the days in 2011. I wasn’t at all. I hated eating vegetables when I was a kid, thinking that the taste of vegetables are just plain bitter! Oh… especially those that are cooked in the Chinese restaurant, adding garlic to make it even worst. No offence to the Chinese cuisine lovers okay. Why isn't bitter? It’s like a non-acidic toxic that burns my tongue when I ate it. My father will force me to eat it because it’s healthy for my body. I had no choice but to swallow the veggies with water, just like eating medicines.

I wasn’t a salad lover myself before, but not until after being selected for National Service. Yes. National Service, the correct term would be “Program Latihan Khidmat Negara” (PLKN). I don’t understand why people would argue that PLKN is the worst place to be and that it is a waste of time. I’m not going to talk about it, because I’ll start to yap about the program which I think it was the best thing that has ever happened to me. So that’s the stepping stone of how I developed my new found interest in eating more veggies by myself and not forced by parents. I had to, because I was staying there for 3 months. I had to take care of myself. As much as I hated saying this before but veggies are good for you because of the health benefits it brings to the table.

My thoughts about veggies have truly changed and the amount of love I have for veggies grew stronger after graduating from PLKN. On that day itself after graduation, my parents brought me to this American restaurant, Betty’s Midwest Kitchen to celebrate my completion of the program. My dad ordered dishes as if it’s ready to serve for 10 people but there were only 3 of us. Every dish served was mouthwatering! Tasted so good! My dad asked me to try the salad which is the normal salad served in lettuce varieties, slices of apples with Thousand Island dressing. It is simply delightful! It was a remarkable day for me knowing that from a person that used to hate eating veggies is now crazy over salads. I eat all kinds of salads now like potato salad, bound salad, green salad and fruit salad. If you are a person that cannot eat anything without meat on the plate, chicken salad is a good choice.

Not only salad can be tasteful, but I have learnt so many new things through this simple, plain dish. I have learnt the reason serving salad as the first course meal before the mains. Like I said, it is light in tastes, so it is a good way to be served as an appetizer to stimulate the appetite before the entrées. Besides that, health benefits from veggies and fruits in the bowl can lower the cholesterol levels and prevent diseases, particularly cancer, and a good way to lose weight too. Salad is also fun to make because you can put almost anything and everything you think is delicious enough for the salad to be tasteful. My regular would be tomatoes mixed lettuce varieties with peeled and sliced oranges with drizzled of desired amount of Thousand Island dressing… similar with the one at Betty’s with a slight change.

For me, new things didn’t mean that it was non-existent before. It just means that I'm only seeing for the first time now. In conclusion, salad is something new to me and it still is, even it was developed back in 2011. So instead of watching your movie marathon at home with popcorns, try changing it to a healthy bowl of salad. That way you can enjoy both movie and a healthy snack. It is simply the best of both world.

DFTBA,

Dann.