Golden Surprise Salad by #RawChefYin.

When @cheftinabarrat invited me to co-present this upcoming raw vegan gourmet dinner, she suggested that we go with the golden theme... all shades of gold, reddish to golden yellow and pale yellow.

I took up the challenge as I somehow like to do new things even though they might be difficult and/or stressful. I headed to the Taman Tun Dr Ismail market to note down all the possible fruits and vegetables that have golden shades and started developing this Golden Surprise Salad. Turns out that it contains a lot of my favourite fruits including mangoes, pomelo and grape fruit.

I'm not a huge fan of salad dressings because they usually contain so much oil and they mask the natural flavours of the salad ingredients so I've kept the dressing very light and oil-free. This way you can taste the original flavours of these golden fruits instead.

You can possibly spot the ulam-ulam as well - those who know me are familiar with how I love to use these Malay herbed salad leaves. We live in a country that is so blessed with these medicinal herbs and yet they're still very much under-appreciated.

According to the book "100 useful herbs of Malaysia and Singapore", the ulam raja is a good source of calcium, phosphorus, iron and vitamins B1, B2 and C. It's recommended for bone-building because of it's high calcium content.

I hope to also get hold of some daun pegaga which according to the same book aids digestion and is believed to possess cosmetic value in preserving a youthful complexion in women. I wonder why the book doesn't mention men? Don't men want youthful complexion too?🙈