fruit salad

Fruit salad (also called Macedonia) is a dish consisting of various kinds of fruit, served either in their own juices or a syrup. In different forms fruit salad can be served as an appetizer, a side-salad, or a dessert. When served as an appetizer or as a dessert, a fruit salad is also known as a fruit cocktail.

Small cups of fruit salad are commonly served for dessert in American public schools. In many cases it is the only form of dessert offered.

However, there are a number of home recipes for fruit salad that contain different kinds of fruit, or that use a different kind of sauce other than the fruit's own juice or syrup. One variation is a Waldorf-style fruit salad, which uses a mayonnaise-based sauce. Other recipes use sour cream (such as in ambrosia), yogurt or even mustard as the primary sauce ingredient. An ever-popular variation also uses whipped cream mixed in with many varieties of fruits (usually a mixture of berries), and also often include miniature marshmallows. Rojak, a Malaysian fruit salad, uses a spicy sauce with peanuts and shrimp paste. In the Philippines, fruit salads are usually made with buko, or young coconut, and condensed milk in addition to other canned or fresh fruit.

There is also an extended variety of fruit salads in Moroccan cuisine, often as part of a kemia, a selection of appetisers or small dishes analogous to Spanish tapas or eastern Mediterranean mezze.

"Fruit Salad" is also the name of a song by Australian Children's band The Wiggles and on the television show The Wonder Pets.

"Fruit-salad" is also a slang term used for Medals on a soldiers uniform- "Look at the fruit-salad on that colonel." The term refers to the bright colors of a high percentage of the ribbons that usually go with medals.^{[citation needed]}