Lo Hei-ing to a New Year

For me, the best part of CNY is always the Lo Hei (Cantonese 撈起 or 捞起) where families and friends gather around the table and on cue, proceed to toss the shredded ingredients into the air while saying 吉祥话 (auspicious wishes) to mark the start of a prosperous new year.

Honestly, I never got the hang of knowing what to say although as children, it was always a challenge to see who could toss the yusheng higher. *grins*

Stepping Back into History (courtesy of wikipedia)

The modern yusheng dish originated during CNY in 1964 and was invented by the "Four Heavenly Culinary Kings of Singapore" as a symbol of prosperity and good health amongst the Chinese. The original dish used raw mackeral although salmon was later offered as an alternative due to its growing popularity. Today, this dish is served as an appetizer to raise 'good luck' for the new year and is usually eaten on Renri, the seventh day of the CNY.

Over time, this dish is now available even on Chu Xi...so I'm one happy camper.

Unfortunately, I was not able to indulge as much as I had hoped for this year since this was more of a Singapore/Malaysia tradition than China Chinese. Upon my return to Singapore, I promptly rallied my Planning ex-colleagues for a good ole Lo Hei.

Managed to get my Lo Hei fix AND dim sum craving at Imperial Treasure@Taka. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. *hee*

Lo-ing to MORE good meals...it never fails to amaze me how the serving aunty can wax lyrical all by herself.

Referencing the "set of three" picture, I really like the salted egg cake (my own name) as there's a wonderful blend of savoury and sweet in one bite!

It's a pity I didn't get to eat as much as I had hoped for. But I guess there's always next year...*satiated sighs*