Soups, salads and appetizers, are the three courses served at the start of a meal. If the meal is a sit down dinner, generally the appetizers will be served as the guest are entering the home and mingling. If the meal is being eaten at a restaurant, the appetizers will be ordered off the menu and brought to the table. The soup and salad course is served next and eaten one of two different ways. Either the salad will be eaten first, and the soup eaten with the main course, or the soup eaten first, with the salad also being eaten before the main course.
     Appetizers can be served either hot or cold, but usually one is served or the other and not usually both at once. It is a good idea to serve them when your guests will also be consuming alcohol, as they help to slow down the absorption of the alcohol. When serving appetizers to a large amount of guests, it’s a good idea to avoid foods with common allergens such as nuts or shellfish. If these types of foods are served, it is wise to keep them separate from other foods, whether during the preparation or the serving. Almost any type of food served in a small amount can be called an appetizer. From the simplest of foods such as cheese and crackers, to finger sandwiches and vegetables, as long as the desired food can be eaten easily with the fingers and a napkin, it is an appetizer. 
     Soup is a food that consists of a variety of ingredients in a liquid broth. Soup can contain numerous different types of vegetables, meats and or fruits. There are hot soups, cold soups and a variety of dessert soups as well. Often a soup will be nothing more than a satisfying broth, which is known as a clear soup. When the soup has other ingredients added, such as the aforementioned meats and vegetables, it is known as a thick soup.  While sometimes served on its own as a meal, soup can also be served as a meal starter as the precursor to the main dish.
     Salad is usually compromised of a variety of chopped greens and vegetables and served with some type of salad dressing.  While this is the most common way to serve salad, there are numerous other dishes that are called “salads”. For instance, when you add vegetables, meat or beans to cold pasta, it becomes a pasta salad. Or, adding chips, cheese and olives to a green salad, turns it into a taco salad. What makes a great salad is up for personal interpretation. While one person might enjoy a simple leafy green salad, another will find enjoyment in a meat salad such as chopped chicken. A salad can be served at any time during a meal. It can be served either as an appetizer, a side dish to the main meal, or as the main meal itself.  Salad such a fruit version, or one made with jello or some type of whipped cream, can also be served as a delicious dessert.