We celebrated Chinese New Year with friends at Adrian and LeeLee's house on Saturday night. It seems we've adopted a new tradition for CNY in the last few years, the tossing and eating of Yee Sang! Just what is Yee Sang? After enjoying this dish with our Malaysian friends for a few years now, I decided to find out!
It is basically a colorful salad made of shredded veggies and raw fish served with plum sauce dressing. Yee sang is "yusheng" in pinyin, or 鱼生 in Chinese. It literally means "raw fish," but "yu" can also mean "over abundance" or "excess" and "sheng" is also "birth." So the element of word play here provides the basis for eating raw fish salad in order to bring in good luck and prosperity for the new year. One source says the dish originated from southern China 1,500 years ago, but most people seem to agree that it actually was invented or at least was made popular as a CNY dish by Chinese immigrants in Singapore or Maylaysia. As far as I know, this is not a CNY tradition in mainland China, but is practiced widely in Maylaysia and Singapore.
It is basically a colorful salad made of shredded veggies and raw fish served with plum sauce dressing. Yee sang is "yusheng" in pinyin, or 鱼生 in Chinese. It literally means "raw fish," but "yu" can also mean "over abundance" or "excess" and "sheng" is also "birth." So the element of word play here provides the basis for eating raw fish salad in order to bring in good luck and prosperity for the new year. One source says the dish originated from southern China 1,500 years ago, but most people seem to agree that it actually was invented or at least was made popular as a CNY dish by Chinese immigrants in Singapore or Maylaysia. As far as I know, this is not a CNY tradition in mainland China, but is practiced widely in Maylaysia and Singapore.
Ingredients: finely shredded white daikon radish, carrots, pepper, chopped shallots, crispy fried noodles, roasted sesame seeds, pomelo, cilantro. . .
Just before eating, thinly sliced pieces of raw salmon and plum sauce are added.
Then, everyone gathers at the table, each equipped with a pair of chopsticks.
Let the tossing begin! The higher the tossing the better b/c the act of tossing ("lo hei") symbolizes the gathering of prosperity for the new year. While tossing, people are also to speak 吉祥话 (Jíxiáng Huà), auspicious wishes to each other.
What a fun and very yummy tradition!The part of China where I'm from, eastern China, we eat dumplings during CNY. I celebrated only but a handful of CNY before coming to the US, but some of my best memories of China was the CNY celebration at my grandparents' home. My grandmother would put a clean coin or red date in several dumplings. Whoever gets a dumpling with the special filling is said to have an auspicious year. This was a big deal for the kids, and we would eat many dumplings in the hope of biting into a coin! Hmm, sounds like "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."
Other memorable traditions of CNY include wearing new clothes for the day, getting "hong bao" (红包, red envelops with money) from aunts and uncles, and of course, the fire crackers! How I'd love to pass some of these traditions to my kids one day.
Happy Chinese New Year!!
The year of the pig!!
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