My First Lunar New Year Dinner

After being deprived of a decent Lunar New Year dinner for my first two years here in Singapore (I had to do the graveyard shift at the animal hospital, FOR TWO YEARS IN A ROW!!!), I finally had the chance to toss the yusheng when I joined my girlfriend's family's New Year's eve dinner. (",)

No Chinese New Year feast is complete without the colorful yusheng. Literally means "raw fish," yusheng is a Chinese-style salad usually taken to usher the Lunar New Year as it symbolises abundance, prosperity and vigor. It usually consists of strips of raw fish (most commonly salmon), mixed with shredded vegetables and a variety of sauces and condiments, among other ingredients. It is a custom for families and friends to gather around the table and, on cue, proceeding to toss the shredded ingredients into the air, as high as they can, with chopsticks while saying auspicious words and phrases out loud to mark the start of a prosperous new year.

What followed doesn't need much elaboration. Roasted chicken, juicy prawns, steamed fish, mouth-watering scallops with celery and nian gao strips, tender abalone and kai-lan in oyster sauce, noodles, refreshing hot Chinese dessert consists of a clear brown soup with lotus seeds, white fungus, dried longans, barley, ginko nuts, sliced water chestnuts, and a free flow of Chinese tea, Tiger beer and red wine.

I got a couple of hong bao (red packets) too!