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Its Chinese New Year eve today. That means family reunion and gathering. That means FOOD! But that’s food for the future. At present, I wanna talk about Yee Sang (directly translated: Raw Fish. Haha).

Now Yee Sang is a Malaysian (or was it Singaporean) invention. Go to other countries and ask for it and they may give you an odd look. But regardless whether it is a commercial ploy to make money or a true Chinese New Year tradition, I must say that it sure tastes good. The underlying sentiment that tossing Yee Sang (Lou Yee Sang) will bring prosperity for the coming year is a nice too, especially if it came true.

I saw the first banner offering Yee Sang going up at a restaurant in Balakong 3 weeks before today. After that, they just popped up like wild mushrooms after rain.

The dish itself consists of shredded vegetables, pomelo (shaddock), crispy stuff, five spice powder, oil, plum sauce, and a choice of fresh fishy topping. The fishy topping can be salmon, tuna, abalone, or a host of other choices that have cropped up over the years as restaurants try to come up with something special to draw the crowds (and charge exhorbitant fees for it). It is sold in units called ‘mai’ (Chinese. Don’t know the English equivalent. Yee Sang is sold in multiples of ‘mai’, e.g. 1/2 mai, 1 mai, 2 mai…).

Yee Sang is served on a large plate, with the plum sauce, oil, fish, crispy stuff, and spices seperate. As each ingredient is added to the plate, the person serving should call out blessings to the group. My guess is that the crispy stuff represents gold coins, the two packets of spice are luck and fortune (I really don’t know how to read chinese), the oil and plum sauce represent overflowing prosperity, and the fish… well, the fish is just fishy but I’m sure it stands for something too. But this is just me taking a poke at it and making wild guesses.

When groups gather to lou yee sang, they stand around the plate, placed in the middle of the table, brandish their chopsticks, mix and toss the ingredients into the air, all the while shouting out well wishes to those around. The underlying myth is that the higher you toss the yee sang, the more prosperity you will have in the coming year.

I’ve tossed yee sang three times this year, with increasingly wild amplitudes of flying tid bits. First time was at Genting Highlands’ Happy Valley Restaurant, second was at Genting Highlands’ Genting Palace Restaurant, and third time round was with the whole gang (almost) of colleagues during my farewell lunch (cum Chinese New Year lunch) at Hakka Restaurant.

Mini Lou Yee Sang by some crazy people (Video)

So if the myths are true, I should be pretty prosperous next year. How about you? Have you lou yee sang this year? If not, its not too late to do so.