trying new things - Papaya Bowl

My family always buy or receive home grown papaya and banana on a weekly basis and we've been eating it plain. We, Malaysian, are truly blessed with the choices of tropical fruits.
One day, I looked around the house and I saw papaya, bananas and nuts. Suddenly, the visual of a beautifully presented papaya bowl popped into my mind. So I thought "Hey, it shouldn't be THAT hard to make it. It's just putting different elements of food together!"

I did it and here's how my first papaya bowl looked like:

My mom tried it and she loves it!

I posted this photo on my social media and to my surprise, I received so many compliments and some even ask me for recipe! I even went to a friend's house to make this for her because she was pregnant and craving for healthy food like this.

It's easy. First, you'll need the BOWL. As titled, I used papaya. You can use a coconut, honeydew or watermelon. As long as it holds. Next, something as the BASE. It is always fruit smoothies or yogurt. I opened the fridge and bingo, a tub of natural yogurt. There are alot of smoothies recipe available online so, have fun choosing!
Next, fruits or something from the superfood family. Lucky me, I have bananas, almonds and soaked chia seeds sitting on my kitchen island. Last but not least, edible decoration with colours that are not under the same hue. My garden has mints so I placed some around. Don't overdo it because you don't want it to outshine the main elements of the bowl.

That's it! Now it's time to carefully place them together to make an aesthetically pleasing papaya bowl. It's not difficult right?

The most recent one is this:

This time, I mixed Shelly's Lemonade syrup into my yogurt for the base and it tasted heavenly! For the fruits, I used blueberries and organic raisins given by my aunt that she got from her Europe trip. To finish it off, I coarsely chopped some walnuts, assembled them together and drizzled some lemon juice. Made this during lunch time, the sun was out so I took the chance to take photos of it.

Here are some tips:
#1 Only use ripe papaya. It should be 80-90% yellow colour. Green skin indicates the rawness. The sweet, soft and creamy texture will blend into the base and compliments the entire bowl. Raw to almost ripe papaya will only makes it harder to eat and it doesn't taste sweet at all.

#2 Chill your papaya before serving. Placing the bowl in the fridge for at least 4 hours before serving will gives you a cool tingy feeling and it's perfect for the hot Malaysia weather. This step is truly a bonus point.

#3 Squeeze some lime juice on it. The sourness and fragrant of lime truly lifts up the entire sensation. It's okay if you don't have any. I didn't use it during my first time anyway.
#4 Everything has to be edible and healthy. As much as we need it to look beautiful, avoid artificial colourings at all costs. Don't even think about adding sparkles or glitters! After all, this is a healthy fruit bowl. 

Making these and getting compliments have boosted my confidence and positive moods. I was dealing with alot of negative emotions for months and I'm glad that making new food and things helped my mental health. 

This won't be the last, I will be sharing more on the new things I try. 

If I can do this, you can do it too!

Cheers,
Loe