Yu Sheng
Yu-Sheng, full of flavors and textures, is loaded with symbolic meaning. The raw ingredients signify the renewal of life, and the sound of the word for fish in Cantonese sounds like the word for prosperity. The most important ( and fun ) part of eating yu sheng is the mixing together of the ingredients. To ensure good luck for the coming year, everyone calls out "Lo hei! " --- which means " to mix it up " but also sounds like " to prosper more and more " while they use their chopsticks to toss the ingredients as high in the air as they can.
The origin :
In the mid-1960s, four master chefs - known in local food circles as the four Heavenly Kings - were jointly responsible for creating a Singaporean culinary tradition by transforming a humble roadside hawker dish into a colourful, tasty and auspicious festive food.
Taking the raw fish slices used in simple fish porridge as their primary ingredient, they invented Yu Sheng, a dish that symbolises for Singaporeans the birth of a new year, and one that has become as synonymous with Singapore as chili crab and chicken rice - only a lot more seasonal.
The four men, Messrs Sin Leong, Hooi Kok Wai, Lau Yoke Pui and Than Mui Kai, combined the fish - typically a local trout - with a variety of ingredients like shredded lettuce, carrots, turnips, red and yellow ginger, pickled onions, jellyfish and sun-dried plums. They then mixed the ingredients, and the taste, with a sour-sweet sauce made from vinegar, plum sauce, salt and sugar.
According to Chris Hooi, son of Hooi Kok Wai and general manager of the family-owned Dragon Phoenix restaurant - started by the elder Mr Hooi in 1963 - fishermen from the coast of Guangzhou province in southern China celebrated the seventh day of the new year by feasting on the fish - which symbolised wealth - that was part of their catch. 'The culture was brought down to Singapore in the early days by people who emigrated here,' says Chris Hooi. 'It later evolved into the fish porridge found in roadside stalls here.
It used to be that Yu Sheng, the Chinese New Year prosperity tossed salad platter, could only be found after the first few days of the new year. It's traditionally eaten on "Ren-ri", meaning Man's Birthday, which falls on the seventh day of the first lunar month.
However, in recent years, you'll see Yu Sheng being sold everywhere in Singapore even before new year starts. In fact, it's so common - you'll see it in the coffeeshops, supermarkets, wet markets, restaurants.
That basic individual dish was re-interpreted by the chefs as Yu Sheng. The elaborate family-sized appetizer - and the attendant ritual of standing around the dinner table and 'tossing' the ingredients - has apparently been re-exported to the motherland. At present, says Mr Hooi, Singapore-style Yu Sheng is available in some parts of China.
Ingredients:
- A bowl of cooking oil = May all things happen according to your wishes
- A bowl of plum sauce = May all your hall ways be filled with gold and jade
- 'The Spices of Life' (A packet of pepper powder and a packet of 'five spice' powder) = May good luck be ahead of you
- Salmon, Sliced Abalone, Raw Lobster Meat = May you receive good tidings in abundance year after year
- Green Lime = Best of luck and best of prosperity
- Turnips/Lettuces = May your fortunes rise with the wind and tide
- Savoury flour chips fried to golden brown (Pok-choi) = May the ground you thread on be covered with yellow gold
Instructions:
1st step: Say Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭喜发财 (getting rich) and Wan Shi Ru Yi (to be smooth sailing) when putting down the Yu Sheng on the table.
2nd Step: Say Da Ji Da Li 大吉大利 (to be very auspicious) when adding limejuice to the ingredient.
3rd step: Say Nian Nian You Yu 年年有余 (to have a surplus every year) and Long Ma Jing Shen (to enjoy great health) when placing Yu Sheng onto the shredded carrot.
4th step: Say Yi Ben Wan Li 一本万利 (business to be flourishing) when putting pepper and five-spice powder to the Yu Sheng.
5th step: Say You Shui Duo Duo 油水多多 (business to be flourishing) when adding golden cooking oil and sauces to the Yu Sheng.
6th step: Say Jin Yin Man Wu 金银满屋 (to obtain abundant wealth) when sprinkling the golden peanut powder.
7th step: Say Sheng Yi Xing Long 生意兴隆 (business to be flourishing) when sprinkling the sesame powder.
8th step: Say Man Di Huang Jin 满地黄金 (to obtain abundant wealth) when adding the thin golden membrane.
The origin :
In the mid-1960s, four master chefs - known in local food circles as the four Heavenly Kings - were jointly responsible for creating a Singaporean culinary tradition by transforming a humble roadside hawker dish into a colourful, tasty and auspicious festive food.
Taking the raw fish slices used in simple fish porridge as their primary ingredient, they invented Yu Sheng, a dish that symbolises for Singaporeans the birth of a new year, and one that has become as synonymous with Singapore as chili crab and chicken rice - only a lot more seasonal.
The four men, Messrs Sin Leong, Hooi Kok Wai, Lau Yoke Pui and Than Mui Kai, combined the fish - typically a local trout - with a variety of ingredients like shredded lettuce, carrots, turnips, red and yellow ginger, pickled onions, jellyfish and sun-dried plums. They then mixed the ingredients, and the taste, with a sour-sweet sauce made from vinegar, plum sauce, salt and sugar.
According to Chris Hooi, son of Hooi Kok Wai and general manager of the family-owned Dragon Phoenix restaurant - started by the elder Mr Hooi in 1963 - fishermen from the coast of Guangzhou province in southern China celebrated the seventh day of the new year by feasting on the fish - which symbolised wealth - that was part of their catch. 'The culture was brought down to Singapore in the early days by people who emigrated here,' says Chris Hooi. 'It later evolved into the fish porridge found in roadside stalls here.
It used to be that Yu Sheng, the Chinese New Year prosperity tossed salad platter, could only be found after the first few days of the new year. It's traditionally eaten on "Ren-ri", meaning Man's Birthday, which falls on the seventh day of the first lunar month.
However, in recent years, you'll see Yu Sheng being sold everywhere in Singapore even before new year starts. In fact, it's so common - you'll see it in the coffeeshops, supermarkets, wet markets, restaurants.
That basic individual dish was re-interpreted by the chefs as Yu Sheng. The elaborate family-sized appetizer - and the attendant ritual of standing around the dinner table and 'tossing' the ingredients - has apparently been re-exported to the motherland. At present, says Mr Hooi, Singapore-style Yu Sheng is available in some parts of China.
Ingredients:
- A bowl of cooking oil = May all things happen according to your wishes
- A bowl of plum sauce = May all your hall ways be filled with gold and jade
- 'The Spices of Life' (A packet of pepper powder and a packet of 'five spice' powder) = May good luck be ahead of you
- Salmon, Sliced Abalone, Raw Lobster Meat = May you receive good tidings in abundance year after year
- Green Lime = Best of luck and best of prosperity
- Turnips/Lettuces = May your fortunes rise with the wind and tide
- Savoury flour chips fried to golden brown (Pok-choi) = May the ground you thread on be covered with yellow gold
Instructions:
1st step: Say Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭喜发财 (getting rich) and Wan Shi Ru Yi (to be smooth sailing) when putting down the Yu Sheng on the table.
2nd Step: Say Da Ji Da Li 大吉大利 (to be very auspicious) when adding limejuice to the ingredient.
3rd step: Say Nian Nian You Yu 年年有余 (to have a surplus every year) and Long Ma Jing Shen (to enjoy great health) when placing Yu Sheng onto the shredded carrot.
4th step: Say Yi Ben Wan Li 一本万利 (business to be flourishing) when putting pepper and five-spice powder to the Yu Sheng.
5th step: Say You Shui Duo Duo 油水多多 (business to be flourishing) when adding golden cooking oil and sauces to the Yu Sheng.
6th step: Say Jin Yin Man Wu 金银满屋 (to obtain abundant wealth) when sprinkling the golden peanut powder.
7th step: Say Sheng Yi Xing Long 生意兴隆 (business to be flourishing) when sprinkling the sesame powder.
8th step: Say Man Di Huang Jin 满地黄金 (to obtain abundant wealth) when adding the thin golden membrane.
posted by dgarden at 9:26 am
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