Yusheng

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Credit: Unknown
We celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year once every year around the world. It took up a lot of time in preparation for this annual festive season, like throwing away unwanted stuff, cleaning up cupboards/windows/walls and etc, planning, sourcing and buying of ingredients for reunion dinner and also goodies to serve the guests/visitors to the house. Not to forget, buying of new clothes, shoes, lingerie, accessories to welcome a brand new year. And that is what we usually do and some even make their own LNY goodies for their own, loved ones or even selling it to earn a little of NY bucks!

As for the post today, we gonna talk about Yusheng (in English, is 'raw fish). It is known as a Lunar New Year dish that is served on the 7th day of Lunar New Year, otherwise known as Ren Ri (人日) which is 'Every man's birthday'. So it did its part in this festive mood.
Credit: Unknown
It looks like Chinese salad (in my opinion) as is made up of:
1) mackerel (some replace it with salmon)
2) pomelo
3) carrot
4) shredded green radish
5) shredded white radish
6) peanut crumbs
7) sesame seeds
8) deep-fried flour crisps
9) pepper, oil, pickled ginger, cinnamon or other spices (varies from time to time)

It simply just as colourful like any salads you can find at salad bars.

 But one thing is for sure, you need to say auspicious words while adding the ingredients as well as during the toss for this Yusheng. 
Credit: Unknown
The above is how we toss the Yusheng. The higher the better. Usually we will say more auspicious words like the usual 'HUAT AH' 发啊, 步步高升(something to do with our career, like we get promoted year by year, something like that)，马票中多多(strike lottery), 生意越做越大(those in business will prosperous and expand), 成家立业(set up family soon), 身体健康(good health), 青春永驻(youthful and pretty forever) and so on. Many to say and usually it just pop up in your mind on the spot. 

The meaning behind Yusheng is simplified this way:

'Yu' known as Fish, symbolises Abundance
'Sheng' known as Raw, symbolises Life
Altogether, Yusheng symbolises Abundance of Wealth and Long Life.

Can I phrase it my way too? Like 'Abundance of Joy in Life'. How about that?

I shall not write further because you will find it boring. This is just a intro to you peeps what is Yusheng. For more details, you may want to read up from Singapore Infopedia and they definitely do a better job in telling the details. 

So I met up with my fren for this Yusheng tossing on Fri. She was raving about how good is the Yusheng at Sakae Sushi so here we are to try it (for me at least) and shall judge from there.

So we follow the Sakae way with 8 steps (8 represents 发 which is prosperous or HUAT AH!) and the restaurant manager or head, Chris helped us with it:

 1st step we add Salmon sashimi and say 年年有余
2nd step we add plum sauce and say 大吉大利
3rd step we add peanuts and say 生意兴隆
4th step we add sesame and say 金玉满堂
5th step we add cinnamon and pepper powder and say 恭喜发财
6th step we add Pok Chui biscuits and say 黄金满地
7th & 8th step, start LOI HEI (toss yusheng) and say 新年快乐，万事如意，荣华富贵，发大财!

This is my 1st yusheng for 2014 and also 1st time having yusheng at Sakae Sushi. Everything is just so awesome! 

If you wanna satisfy your Japanese food craving, walk-in to any Sakae Sushi outlets or make reservation through their website under 'Contact Us' and choose 'Reservation'. They will contact you via a ring or sms to confirm your reservation. Mine is pretty fast in response and thank you Chris from the Frontier CC outlet for your warmth service.
Sakae Sushi
The Frontier Community Club, #01-05,
60 Jurong West Central 3,
Singapore 648346
Tel: (+65) 67922806
Opening Hours: 11:30am to 10:00pm daily
Last order: 9:30pm

 So once again a Happy Lunar New Year! It is gonna be over so by next Fri, which is also Valentine's Day in English and Lunar calendar. A double celebration for everyone, especially for those who are getting married on that day! Really a memorable one!