But I have had some amazing and memorable salads from obliging happy chefs. You may need to check they know what raw is... my request has been met with questions like “oh and would you like some salami/bacon/croutons...in your (raw) salad?” One Chinese restaurant stands out for taking an eternity to produce a salad after the dear young waitress kept repeatedly coming out the kitchen asking “is mushroom ok raw? is broccoli ok raw? is cauliflower ok raw?” She was gob-smacked by my request and it took forever (over an hour) in the making but when it emerged finally, the HUGE platter (there were two of us) was an absolute work of art – with each piece of vegetable intricately carved into flowers, shapes, rosettes etc. Almost too wonderful to consume!
4 Be prepared however that some places will produce you a small bowl of iceberg lettuce, a single slice of cucumber and a wedge of tomato - and request a BIG price for it. So, depending on your mood and your upbringing (bolshy/passive-aggressive/rude/don't make a fuss dear) you can also do what I rapidly learnt to do and that's to supplement with your own BYO stuff. Michael and I have been known to unload our ‘picnic’ in restaurants, piling the table high with avocados (which by the way restaurants will never give you the likes of such huge ripe juicy ones you can provide yourself so always take your own), seaweed, nuts, sprouts and yes of course, Kaitaia Fire. We've never been kicked out nor asked to put away our contributing picnic and sometimes we've just felt the need to express that we were on a ‘special diet’ and hoped they didn't mind clearing away the extra compost material.
5 One other note is to beware the dressing!
Usually this is some canoloa-loaded toxic goo loaded with colouring, flavouring and msg, not to mention sugar. Or it may be Paul Newman and his chemicals. So 'hold the dressing' is a good line to use if it's an issue for you. Ask for a lemon to squeeze – every restaurant should have a lemon somewhere in the kitchen – and/or some plain olive oil.
Raw Bite – Flying Raw Many folk aren't aware that when you book your flight you can request a FRUIT PLATTER instead of an airline meal. A travel agent client told me this some years ago and since then I've had some fabulous mile high 'meals'. Usually I'm the only one on the flight gorging fresh pineapple, watermelon and other tropical fruits and I get envious stares from fellow passengers. I've also had some hideous platters - completely unripe fruit, sulphur-dioxided dried fruit and sugared tinned fruit - but more often than not they've been pleasant. Remember you can always BYO on board also and a bag of fruit is excellent flying nourishment, being high in water content. Just beware the sniffer dogs when you land in New Zealand after an in-flight mango feast. I was practically mauled by an on-duty beagle whose custom officer handler rather embarassingly informed me the pooch's favourite food was mango and did I happen to have any on me? About 8 sweet juicy Balinese mangoes IN me was my answer and the scent was all over me and my bags!