Also known as "Yusheng" "Lo Hei" or my preference "Raw Fish Salad". This traditional New Year's Salad is served most often in the Chinese cultures in Malaysia and Singapore. It consists of many raw sliced/shredded vegetables and raw fish such as mackerel or salmon. The veggies are in a large platter and added to this are many spices and a plum sauce and then the fish. Each of these represents some form of prosperity for the coming new year. As each ingredient is added, a "blessing" or calling out of prosperous words is announced. After all ingredients have been added, the fun begins! Everyone grabs his/her chopsticks and begins tossing the salad. Literally. The higher the better. The tossing is another form of asking for prosperity and the higher you toss, the more prosperity you receive! As the tossing takes place, everyone is shouting new year blessings and greetings, making for a fun and silly time before digging into the cool refreshing salad!
We were blessed to actually get to partake of Yee Sang twice. While it is normally eaten on the seventh day of the new year, we had it once early in a family's home and another time on the seventh day with a large group after church. I wonder what it says about my youngest nephew and his prosperity that he ended up with salad on his forehead after the tossing!
2 comments:
A rather interesting tradition, although I can't get very excited about raw fish.
really though, it wasn't too bad. what w/ all the raw veggies, you couldn't tell when you were eating the raw fish! and it was covered in spices and plum sauce too. with it being so hot, the salad was cool and refreshing. and it was funny watching the whole large group toss the salad!
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