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The days of yee sang are numbered. We only celebrate the first half month of the Lunar New Year after all. Soon our fifteen days will be up, and there will be no more yee sang for us to toss, to thrill as the joys and hopes for the eleven months to come get tumbled up in the air, like good fortune, like a good mystery.
Eat up, my dear friends, while we still may. The last days of loh sang are upon us.
.
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Sweet slivers of fresh salmon. Shredded roots — daikon or white radish or turnip to begin with, and carrots, of course, fine strips of vermillion vigour. Add colour with red capsicum if you like, but don’t forget the chopped peanuts, the toasted sesame seeds. Some ginger would be fine here as well, young ginger only, please. For the dressing, we need some rice wine vinegar, some plum sauce or kumquat paste if you have it. Five spice powder adds the hidden flavour. And finally, a storm of crispy crackers all over the assembled ingredients.
The recipe is easy; it’s the real making of it that’s hard. Really good yee sang isn’t about the ingredients but the good people you gather around to share it with. And for that, you truly must choose from the best.
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We attack mercilessly. You do not need to prompt us; we have our chopsticks at the ready since the waiter placed the wide dish on our table. We measure out a modicum of etiquette in polite company but as soon as he departs, we are like ravenous wolves. We stab and we seize, we shake our fates together, intertwining your beautiful misery with my grief made brief and we shape a new destiny.
We gather our bounty, our abundant pickings, and we start eating. We devour our good year, making sure no single perfect moment escapes us. We are greedy and grateful for our blessings of plenty. Let us leave no trace of what we ate and of what drank till the last sip.
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~ * ~
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For Little Ekin in New York.
Photography by Steve Steve. Design & haikus by Kenny Mah.
the loh sang has been haiku-ed!
and it starts out mellow-ish…and then becomes all climatic…faster faster and then u recede.
very cool.
How come photos dont have my face one ? lol
Why is it that it’s an entry about food that I was not invited to eat dedicated to me?
I am devoted with Yee Sang, having the practise of Loo Sang is a must practise every year.
Are you devoted too?
sigh..counting down till the yee sang ends..wait a minute..it shud b eating all the way till yee sang ends!
time is running out! quickly go and have yee sang while we still can! lol
toss more of the yee sang while you can.
few more days to go.
in reply to ur comment, dun be jeles lah,
come and have it in spore, where this dish originates
“We devour our good year, making sure no single perfect moment escapes us”… ooh I like! I keep finding these golden nuggets of mantra here for the new year. I just have to keep reading your blog to not turn jaded and complacent!
Sweet plum sauce to start a sweet new year! Have a very oxpicious new year, Kenny!
waaaaaaaaaaa.… looks like it belongs on a hallmark card stand! so creative one la u…
oh gosh, you just reminded me i need to get more dose of these goodness!
~
eh the shots very beautiful.
as of now, only 5 more days to go.
y cannot lou sang during Xmas, Merdeka or Bday ah? =)
We were just talking about yee sang the other day, us and our family friends. Us being Hakka and all, we joked about how yee sang in Hakka is pronounced as ng sang, which in Cantonese would mean “no growth”, rather than “easy growth”, as proposed by yee sang.
So it was decided that if we wanna loh sang, it’s yee sang. If we don’t wanna, it’s ng sang.
Gong Hei Fatt Choy Kenny! Hope I´m not too late, as you know, I´m damn good and prompt with leaving comments .-) Anyway, wanna wish you …
Gutes Neues Jahre auch!
every meal become superb delicious under your description..lol
Anyhow, I enjoyed the ‘loh sang’ session
n_n
the entire second passage is incredibly beautiful… and u gave us the recipe for yee sang as well!
funny i didn’t know that you ate yee sang with daikon or white raddish!
my family’s not really big on yee sang cos they dont fancy raw fish and find it too sweet.
but i have lou-sanged with friends on occasion (those ‘homemade’ ones that you buy from supermarkets)
recently we had lou sang at home and a friend brought this chinese pear thing (forgot the name in cantonese) and i was like ‘whats that for?’ lol
ah the things we learn with each passing day!
haven’t drop by ur blog in awhile. i really like this new series of CNY posts… will we see one more before the 15th day of CNY? maybe a chap goh meh post? i am sure it will fit ur style very well… Chinese Valentines… =)
thank god my ugly face has been left out of this post. I still see my hands in one of them. and yes, the yee sang is still lacking of some green. thought u would have photoshopped some in. where’s the Kenny Mah magic?
“We devour our good year, making sure no single perfect moment escapes us.“
my, now isn’t that so true. carpe diem, my friend!
we know why eat what we eat. very well reflected here.
i’m ashamed to not know about the four heavenly culinary kings of singapore. i only remember singing to jacky/leon/andy/aaron after tossing yu sangs in chinese restaurants..haha!
Bayview Hotel Malacca has an amazing fruit yee sang. Have been there for a few years and some KL hotels are copying. Multiple colours, tasty, crunchy and refreshing with out the fed-up oily starchy stuff. Hope someone blog it.
No doubt yours belong to the aura of the rare prose n poetic romantiks although like here you just might put those wannabe modern cafe misfreaks to deli-humiliation with your easy smacking glimpses of the opulent dis-excesses of the glorious ChinShi Huang Ti Empire
Yee sang.… So nice… seriously I’ve never tried it before, and just became familiar with the tradition of yee sang because reading in the blogs.
very nice photos as usual… but how come no faces? where is the lengcai and lenglui?
ah, what can one do without loh hei?
This year was particularly special as my mother made her own!
ah, much better format, this, so your multitude of fans dont have to wade through the vast labyrinth of eloquence to find your reply to their comments.
now i forgot what i was gonna say.
oh, ya, yee sang. frightfully overpriced, the best marketing ploy since .….. err.… [blank]
like u, the first few tosses are great, and the first few mouthfuls,.…but by the 3rd or 4th time, i’m thinking, aaaaaaaaaargh, give me moon cakes oridi.….
in the good old days of yore, when restauraters were not so mercernary, yee sang only appeared on the 7th day.….now ah, i think it appears on the 7th day of the solar year…
No no…you must leave some trace of the yee sang…so it means “abundance”.….hahaha!
I think I’ll had my last Lou Sang for this year today with my makan gang!!!
Loh sang and life — what you get out of it is what you put into it, kan? Here’s to a wonderful loh sang 2009 (and if it came with hakka yeong tau hu, well even –better-!)
Kong Hee Fatt Choy. I enjoyed the Yee Sang this visit to KL. Will try to catch up when I’m next back. Yee Sang is quintessentially Malaysian and thus so much more enjoyable!
Chris and I didn’t get to lou sang this year…
Perhaps next year floggers should come up with a CNY gathering and have a massive lou sang session all together!
haha.… compensating my feelings of CNY away from home ;P
agree!!! Flogger party!!!
i love yee sang! wish i can have it all year round!
Hehe, haiku-ed like none other! (As in no one else does it quite as lame and poorly as I do, but who cares, right? So long as I keep to the 5/7/5 rule, it’s all good.)
Maybe this is a good place to reprint the little haiku I wrote for you yesterday:
Sweet cherry blossoms
Almost gone from this earth but
Your song blooms instead.
Not as fancy as the some other haikus (nudge, nudge) but this is one time I don’t mind haivng my words pale in comparision. Tee hee.
Haiyo you har… When put photos complain your own face not nice. When don’t put your face complain your face is missing… You very ma-fan one lah.
Maybe I need to search for a new kid godbrother… One that is less fussy. Any takers?
Cos it’s something I’ll dish up for you when you come to Malaysia, you dork! (Though knowing me, I’ll prolly outsource the actual preparation to The Devil Wears Prada or A Lil Fat Monkey. Hehe.)
Er, honestly? I’m a detractor to be honest. The first serving is great, especially when you get together with good friends and family. After that, Round 2, Round 3, Round… it gets tedious and rather blah for me.
But I know I am in the minority here cos everyone I have this dish with swears they can eat three square meals of it every day for the whole moo moo year…
I think I’ve eaten far too much already this Lunar New Year… I’m looking far too prosperous already!
Hahah… no rush lah. You do know you can make yee sang on your own, right? Just buy and prepare all the ingredients I listed above…
Harlo… Yee Sang actually originated in Jiangmen in the Guangdong province of China and was brought by migrants to Malaya… and eventually filtered down to Singapore (just as all delicious delicacies like nasi lemak, satay and roti canai did).
I doubt you are jaded or complacent — after all, your nickname even has the word ‘faith’ in it! And we do have to make an effort to start the year on a good note, an optimistic note, for challenges are bound to come our way no matter what fortune cookies tell us.
And guess what? The best part is we can choose to start the year well. We choose to have a darn good year.
The OXpiciousest new year to you too! Hehe.
Haha, you think Hallmark might pay me?
Can lor… but folks are gonna look at you funny. Come to think of it, not a bad idea hor?
I never knew that! That’s so funny! Well, then I am definitely sticking too yee sang… cos if one is to grow, one may as well do it easily, eh?
*looks at expanding waistline*
Yup. So easily…
Hahaha… So farnie. It doesn’t really matter lah… a comment once in a blue moon from you also brings a smile to my face always. Bis später!
Errr.… that was not the salad that you see these days my friend.
The current or ‘modern’ yu sheng was only invented in the 60s by the 4 Four Heavenly Culinary Kings of Singapore — master chefs Hooi Kok Wai, Lau Yoke Pui, Sin Leong and Tham Mui Kai.
Source:
http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_177__2009-01–08.html
Ah, but the dish keeps getting reinvented anyway… what matters is the original stuff came to Malaya first. I did hear of those Four Heavenly Culinary Kings though. Famous flers.
Is this the appropriate time to sing “Everything you can do, we can do better… Everything we do, we do better than you…” LOL
hahah… everyone’s waistlines grow during CNY lah, not just urs! so dun feel bad abt it.
Glad you enjoyed the “loh sang” session, bro. It’s becoming a family tradition in the past couple of years… Hope we get an even larger and happier group next year.
And the descriptions would be nothing without your superbly delicious photos…
Well, the recipe is one thing. I can’t provide the fellow guests and diners to go with the recipe though.
Yes, but I don’t have to stare at other people’s waistlines in the mirror everyday, do I? Sighs…
Sing ” I did it my way ” lah…
LOL…
OH gosh, are we starting a karaoke session here? Cos if we are, I’m breaking out my Celine Dion. “It’s all coming back to me noooooowwwww.…”
Yeah, these days there are all sorts of yee sang aside from the ‘original recipe’, so to speak. Variety is the five spice of life, after all, haha.
I was never that big on raw fish before either and we used to have this vegetarian yee sang (which was basically yee sang without the raw fish). But as with most things when we grow up (like our voice deepening and various sexual organs enlarging, ahem), we change and I kinda love raw fish in its different forms now be it sashimi or yee sang.
P.S. Ever found out what that Chinese pear thing is?
A Chap Goh Meh post? Those are for our good Hokkien friends only lah, I think. Though my mom’s Hokkien, I’m technically Cantonese thanks to me dad, so…
We’ll see.
Your face is not ugly, you old mug! You have the smoothest skin of any of us! You’d put Snow White to shame! Yeesh.
As for the lack of green… hey, I have to represent that dinner as it was and not add stuff like artificially-coloured green sprigs of plastic that other folks have in their yee sang. Hmm… maybe it was a good thing not having the extra green after all… LOL
Hehehe. Come now, do you really belt out songs by the Four Heavenly Kings of Pop post-tossing? (Post-tossing? That sounds, uhm, more amorous than I meant it to be, hehe.)
And speaking of shame, I was almost ashamed to post this after your recent post that brought tears to my eyes… well, drool from my lips, but same difference.
Bayview? You mean City Bayview? That’s an old stalwart in Malacca (my hometown). Now it someone can just get the list of ingredients, I’m sure we can duplicate it here ourselves… and then blog about it, haha.
Yes, you do! Before it’s ALLLL GOOOONNNNNEEEE.…
Hahaha.… I can’t believe you manage to fit all that into ONE sentence! And my readers call me cheeem!
Anyway, I’m not here to ‘deli-humiliate’… just writing what I write, is all. It’s all good, brother.
Well, you really should. Even if it isn’t served in the Chinese restaurants near you, can still make this at home as most of the ingredients are fairly easily available at any good supermarket. Try it… and be surprised at how well the flavours meld together.
Awwww…and now your haiku to me is immortalized on Life For Beginners
Thank you dear Kenny. *big hugs*
I wouldn’t know about ‘immortalised’ (this is the Internet after all, where nearly nothing is permanent) but you’re very much welcome, dear.
*big hugs back*
i’ve tried it at home before and the taste is not quite the same. but it is alot healthier cos we use only fresh ingredients. none of those pre-packed fake coloured stuff they serve at restaurants. =P
maybe the four kings of heaven can open a restaurant like the hollywood cafe?
i meant Planet Hollywood, not hollywood cafe… paiseh =P
Haha, understood, no worries. But I doubt one can get all four of them together and work on something, eh? Big stars, bigger egos and all that…
Very true, which is why one should attempt this at home and see for oneself how the results fare against the professional versions. Or likeChin mentioned in a comment above, try fruit yee sang or something else fusion and new! The possibilities are endless…
Aww.. you miss the faces? Haiya, can’t always have faces ma… otherwise some folks complain keep seeing the same ol’ mugs over and over again. LOL
Wow! Daphne’s Mom’s Super Special Yee Sang! Now you we all wanna try some too. Can?
Let’s take the orderly route on this reply:
(a) I do not possess any fans lah, bro… much less a multitude of them. You, on the other hand, have appeared as the centrefold of various published materials catering to both culinary aficionados and purveyors of planned pregnancies. (Tee hee.)
Your legion of fans are… uhm… legion.
(b) Yee Sang is indeed frightfully overpriced. Just like some of those franchised kopitiams I patronise far more frequently than I should.
© When can we have mooncakes again har? Those I won’t jelak one…
(d) All these sevens… I thought Chinese like the number eight?
no complains from us lah… bring the lengcais and lengluis back!
i’m a fan!
Count me in as another fan! =)
Okay okay… Yes, ma’am!
Aww… Thanks for saying so, dear.
Oh we did… “some” trace… not much though… it was too tasty to waste! Hahaha.…
Really? There are still a few more days. Methinks I’ll have one more round (only the 2nd time, actually) on the last day — Chap Goh Meh, which falls on Monday, same day as the Hindu festival of Thaipusam. You’ve gotta love Malaysia… even our festivities cross over and we have even more to celebrate!
Oooh, don’t remind me of the spicy spicy Yong Tau Foo last nite… it was to die for! I wonder when we can get Chef Jeff from Washington to cook for us again? *drools in memory*
that’s the best part — Kongsi Raya!
Ooh, are u gonna post about Chap Goh Meh or Thaipusam? Or both? HeheHe.
Yummy Yong Tau Foo… Did u cook it urself? So many talents la u, Mr. Mah. =)
chefs all the way from washington to cook for you? wow… you really are a celebrity blogger/writer!
Yay… When are we gonna have Kongsi Raya again, in the next few years? When Chinese New Year (the “Kongsi” or “Gong Xi Fa Cai” part) coincides with the Aidilfitri (the “Hari Raya” part), I mean. Should be fun…
I already did! It’s inspired by Chap Goh Meh.
No lah… Jeff the Chef did! He’s the talented one… My only talent is to surround myself with talented people. LOL
No lah… It’s thanks to Snow White, my friend Yin. She attracts the talent pool from all over. I’m just the collateral… uhm, beneficiary. Hehe.
Thanks, Tunku! Do let’s meet up the next time you’re in town!
wow… u dun just know celebrity chefs u even know snow white! who else, sleeping beauty? lol
Hahaha… I have my own Sleeping Beauty in the bedroom right now. Still asleep at 8:17am! But it’s a public holiday so…
Oh that sounds good… We haven’t done a major Flogger Event since the Retro Xmas of 2007. Time for a reunion!
Hope you get to spend next CNY back at home, dear.
Can non-floggers come too?
Ah, for that we have to refer to the Great Flogger Committee. I suggest referring this to the Lyrical Lemongrass/Precious Pea/WMW sisterhood of ’07…
Woo hoo! The famous Jackson Kah says aye! Any more from the floggers?
All year round? Make it like char kway teow or rojak buah? But liddat not so special di…
what is a flogger party? *confused…*
Flogger = Food Blogger
Flogger party = any event giving aforementioned floggers a reason to eat, eat, eat and eat some more!