By Steven Lim
Feb. 18, 2007

Forget about the usual greasy cookies, bak kwa (barbequed pork), sweets and pineapple tarts if you are planning to invite your family and friends over the Chinese New Year period for a get-together.

Why not try something healthier and more meaningful for the occasion?

Like yu-sheng, a Chinese-style raw fish salad.

Instead of merely feeding your guests with greasy and unhealthy pre-made snacks and cookies, you could do a festive “lo hei” (meaning “to toss” in Cantonese) with your loved ones – especially since food always serves as a focal point at any gatherings.

Tired of merely serving up the predictable snacks, cookies and melon seeds, I assembled a yu-sheng set for 10 visiting relatives last year.

The preparation turned out to be easier than I expected.

With a packaged set available at the supermarket, I managed to assemble an expensive-looking yu-sheng set within 20 minutes.

It was a bit of a surprise for some of my relatives, who were amazed at how I managed to whip up such a dish within the confines of my humble kitchen.

They had evidently never tried the pre-packaged yu-sheng sets available at supermarkets.

My previous memories of tossing yu-sheng were at restaurants, a special event for the whole family at “ren ri”, the seventh day of the first month of the new Lunar year.

With gusto, my mother and grandfather would toss the mixture of pickled ginger, shredded carrot, crushed peanuts and fresh slices of fish with various sauces, while saying auspicious phrases out aloud.

Laden with symbolic meaning (but not fat, thankfully!), yu-sheng is a homonym for surplus, rising vigour and prosperity.

Back then, I did not understand the significance of the tossing action, except that there would be tasty morsels of fish and crisp vegetables to eat thereafter.

Neither was pre-packaged yu-sheng available at supermarkets, since packaged yu-sheng sets were only introduced by supermarkets several years ago.
 
Before the days of pre-packaged yu-sheng, the painstaking preparation of the variously-coloured pickled ginger, shredded vegetables, crackers and crushed peanuts would have started weeks before Chinese New Year.

Even restaurants and the humble “zhi char” (coffee-shop eatery) stalls alike use ready-made ingredients in their yu-sheng these days since such ready-made ingredients are readily available to the average consumer in packages sold at supermarkets.

In fact I counted at least three different brands of such yu-sheng packages on my last visit.

This invariably means yu-sheng need no longer be confined to expensive restaurants or even coffee-shop eateries, which could charge up to an exorbitant $58 for the set.

The figure ‘8’ has to figure in the price, for it is a homonym for “fa”, the Chinese word for “prosper”. So don’t be surprised if patrons of a restaurant or coffee-shop eatery would most willingly shell out $88 for the raw fish salad.

Which begets the next question – why pay those amounts if you could create this auspicious dish cheaply and easily, right in your own home?

I created a yu-sheng set for less than $20 with the recipe attached below. It is at once delicious, auspicious and a spectacle. 

Like a birthday celebration, “lo hei” is a truly festive moment where everyone automatically gathers around the salad to engage in a moment of raucous togetherness.

You just cannot get any more festive that that.

And unlike many other Chinese New Year foods, one savours the deliciously tangy salad with no guilt whatsoever – but do remember to be prudent on the amount of oil you pour onto the colourful mixture.

If you are lucky, you might be able to grab a second helping. But hey, now that you know how easy it is to make yu-sheng, have your fill of it this Chinese New Year!
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Cheap and easy Yu-Sheng

Ingredients
1 large carrot
1 large radish
1 lime
1 pack jellyfish with seasonings ($1.60 for a pack)
1 piece of fresh salmon or abalone, sliced (optional)
1 pre-packed yu-sheng ingredients (a $8.90 pack serves 6 persons)

Method
Shred carrot and radish finely. Set aside.

Marinate the jellyfish and set aside. Remember to pour away excess liquids from the jellyfish package.

Arrange the various ingredients on a large platter.

Squeeze lime juice over the fresh fish and toss. Remember to say the following auspicious phrases out loudly:

年年有余! (Let there be surplus year after year!)
捞啊！捞啊!发啊！发啊! (Toss ah! Prosper ah!)