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Fruit Salads

              Fruits, admirable as they are, do not prepare the palate and stomach for food to come. A fruit "cocktail" or any other sweet and flowery food, has none of the appetizer property of alcoholic or shellfish cocktails that derive their virtue, in fact, from being removed as far as possible from that end of the gastronomic spectrum. Grapefruit is perhaps the best fruit to serve as a "salad" at the start of a meal, but it does not really prepare the way for meat and vegetables. In any case, no cherry on top, please, lest someone make the mistake of eating it. Even a trace of imitation maraschino flavour plays havoc with a sensitive palate, and pineapple is almost as bad. Such flavours are useful to write "finis" to a meal.

              California invented the fruit salad, which was intended in fact to be a salad. It is really much better in its British translation eaten as a sweet. From California also came the salad meal. We suspect that a main appeal of the salad meal is the ill-founded belief that it is singularly healthful and won't make you fat. A meal of salad can have those properties, but when it contains half a pound of Blue cheese and a teacupful of mayonnaise it is low neither in calories nor in fat.

              An excellent low-calorie meal can be provided by a cup of soup and a fruit "salad" such as pear with cottage cheese. You can even add dates or raisins and chopped nuts if that is your fancy (not ours!) and a small bit of sharp cheese is permissible, but don't ruin the idea by pouring great quantities of salad dressing over the whole.