Asian food hall, cocktail spot, basement supermarket and bakery Hello Oriental in Circle Square is introducing the Prosperity Salad to its menu this weekend to help bring in the Lunar New Year.
Videos of the viral hit dish have racked up a staggering 300 million views on TikTok, thanks to their colourful ingredients and aerial antics.
It’s the way that it’s thrown together which has caught people’s imagination. Traditionally, the higher the salad is tossed, the more prosperity is guaranteed over the coming year. The aim is to toss the salad higher and higher each time, while wishing all at the table good fortunes.
You assemble and toss the salad yourself and it serves between four and six people. The traditional salad features a host of super-fresh ingredients including carrot, mooli, cucumber, leek, Asian pear, pink pomelo, wakame, pickled onion and ginger, teriyaki salmon, smoked salmon, crispy won ton pastry and a plum teriyaki dressing. Customers will be able to order the salad from this weekend for £29.95.There’s even a premium option with an extra ingredient, traditional jellyfish, for an extra £5.
“With or without the jellyfish, the Prosperity Salad is just a fun way to bring in Chinese New Year,” said Hello Oriental co-founder Ricky Yip. “We want to bring everyone who comes to Hello Oriental as much good fortune as we possibly can for the coming year.
“It’s also a great way to celebrate as we approach our first anniversary. We opened up in February last year, and it’s been an amazing ride, bringing our roast meats, dim sum, bao buns, phos, salads and cocktails to our hometown. Here’s to the next one!”
Hello Oriental will also be bringing back their divisive Durian Ice Cream for New Year. Made from the world’s smelliest fruit, it’s been described variously as smelling like everything from ‘dead cats’ to ‘vomit’ (– I’ve actually tried it and it has the texture of a ripe brie matched with the sharp savouriness of raw onion.)
Not wanting that level of ice cream-based commitment? Try some of Hello Oriental’s other new flavours, including White Rabbit candy flavour (made from the traditional Chinese milk sweets to mark the incoming Year of the Rabbit), vegan charcoal ice cream and Indomie ice cream – a big deal in Indonesia, which tastes like instant packet noodles.
Hello Oriental’s new menu launches this weekend (from January 20th), and will run for two weeks. There’s also a special Chinese New Year deal in place too – enjoy three courses and a cocktail, a mocktail or a glass of wine for only £35. Other festive dishes include Nian Gao, the Chinese New Year cake and Lo Bak Gao, a traditional radish cake, which will be available in the market over the festive period.
Hello Oriental, Unit 3B South Pavilion 2 Symphony Park, Manchester M1 7FS
