The word “salad” comes from the Latin herbasalata “salted herbs”. Its derivation suggests that in the early days, salads must have been freshly picked vegetables, seasoned with salt and eaten raw. However, more elaborate salads were known by the time of classical Rome. 

Salads are served at the start of a meal, they excite the palate and stimulate the appetite for the course that follow. Vegetables still predominate in salads but any kind of fish, meat or poultry which is dressed with a sauce (usually some variation on a vinaigrette), a cream sauce or the smooth emulsion of egg tolks and oil called mayonnaise , can be considered a salad.

Main Researcher: Dr Nor Aini Idris