Day 3
Happy Chinese New Year! Gung hei fat choi!
When in Singapore during the lunar new year it seems the popular thing to do would be to go for some Yu Sheng or Lo Hei. It's the same thing, just depends on who's talking about it. Yu Sheng translates to "raw fish" and lo hei means "stir up".
This Singaporean lunar new year tradition was created by 4 chefs at a Chinese restaurant here in Singapore in the mid 1960s. I'm assuming it was a big publicity scheme that exploded and turned into a tradition. Somewhat like the skepticism that Santa Claus was created by a department store's marketing department, except the chefs did exist.
The dish itself is a salad of sashimi style fish, grated or sliced raw vegetables, nuts, crackers, oils and sauce. Each element represents a different symbol of good fortune for the next year. For example the crackers represent gold nuggets and the oil represent everything will go smooth for the next year. It's also called "lo hei" or "stir up" because the traditional way of eating it is everyone at the table grabs their chopsticks and tosses the ingredients together at the same time while shouting out blessings such as good health, good fortune, good business, etc for the coming year. The higher you toss the ingredients the more prosperity it'll bring. Food gets every where but that's part of the fun!
It's served as an appetizer to begin the traditional new year's eve/day feast. I wasn't quite in the mood for a sashimi salad and it just seemed more like a superstitious marketing ploy than a meaningful tradition. However I figure, "when in Rome..." I guess the universe sensed my unwillingness to participate because for the last 2 days I've been trying to make reservations at restaurants that serve this dish and they're all fully booked!
Now I wasn't just going to give up. What kind of a Chinese girl would I be if I didn't have a feast to ring in the new year and bring myself a year of abundance? Therefore, I'm going to have an auspicious new year feast my way. A smorgasbord to include all the major ethnicities in Singapore - Chinese, Indian, and Malay. That's right, I don't discriminate, I appreciate. So I went to a hawker center.
Eating at hawker centers in Singapore is a national pass time. They're everywhere! It use to be a bunch of street food vendors scattered throughout the city until the government decided to clump them together in designated areas to better monitor their sanitation standards. A great move on their part and a blessing to us all.
There are all sorts of hawker centers. Some serve either mainly Chinese, Malay, or Indian. I like the ones that serve all 3. My usual spot is Newton Circus. It also helps that its across the street from my hotel.
Tonight's experience was a bit disappointing as half the stalls were closed due to most of the Chinese vendors taking the night off to spend new year's day with their families. Understandable. But lucky for me, there were some troopers out there.
Chinese people loves seafood for special occasions. I am no exception so I ordered some tiger prawns grilled with garlic and BBQ skate wing topped with chili sauce. To make myself feel like I'm having a healthy meal, I ordered some steamed Chinese broccoli garnished with fried garlic and oyster sauce. The broccoli was steamed perfectly where it was still bright green with a slight crunch to it.
I would have preferred that they cook the garlic on the prawns more. The al dente garlic was a bit pungent. Plus I kept thinking it's might give me some major heartburn tonight. So I scraped most of it off. Without the garlic, the prawn itself were perfectly grilled and had a succulent natural sweetness to it.
I also forgot to ask to have the chili sauce for the skate wing on the side. I'm a spice wimp so it was too spicy for me. I love skate wing because I'm pretty sure it's one of the few fish that's always moist and sweet no matter how much you cook it.
Then to represent the Malays I ordered chicken and pork satays. 5 of each because they come in platters of 10. These are Malaysian style mini kebabs served with peanut sauce. Don't expect a savory peanut sauce with a slight peanut butter flavor. Its more of a sweet curry thickened with chopped peanuts. That's the style and it compliments the marinade of the satays very well.
Next came some lamb mutarbek. Its sort of an Indian quesadilla. It's naan bread filled with ground lamb, fried eggs, and onions with a side of curry instead of salsa for dipping. I was disappointed with this particular one. The naan was soggy, the lamb was very dry, and the onions weren't cooked properly. The curry dipping sauce didn't have much flavor either. The naan is suppose to be chewy with a slight crisp on the outside from it being seared to seal and meld the concoction.
Nonetheless it was a feast and I washed it all down with the juice from a sweet ice cold coconut! All for about $70 USD.
Happy Chinese New Year to me!
Happy Chinese New Year! Gung hei fat choi!
When in Singapore during the lunar new year it seems the popular thing to do would be to go for some Yu Sheng or Lo Hei. It's the same thing, just depends on who's talking about it. Yu Sheng translates to "raw fish" and lo hei means "stir up".
This Singaporean lunar new year tradition was created by 4 chefs at a Chinese restaurant here in Singapore in the mid 1960s. I'm assuming it was a big publicity scheme that exploded and turned into a tradition. Somewhat like the skepticism that Santa Claus was created by a department store's marketing department, except the chefs did exist.
The dish itself is a salad of sashimi style fish, grated or sliced raw vegetables, nuts, crackers, oils and sauce. Each element represents a different symbol of good fortune for the next year. For example the crackers represent gold nuggets and the oil represent everything will go smooth for the next year. It's also called "lo hei" or "stir up" because the traditional way of eating it is everyone at the table grabs their chopsticks and tosses the ingredients together at the same time while shouting out blessings such as good health, good fortune, good business, etc for the coming year. The higher you toss the ingredients the more prosperity it'll bring. Food gets every where but that's part of the fun!
It's served as an appetizer to begin the traditional new year's eve/day feast. I wasn't quite in the mood for a sashimi salad and it just seemed more like a superstitious marketing ploy than a meaningful tradition. However I figure, "when in Rome..." I guess the universe sensed my unwillingness to participate because for the last 2 days I've been trying to make reservations at restaurants that serve this dish and they're all fully booked!
Now I wasn't just going to give up. What kind of a Chinese girl would I be if I didn't have a feast to ring in the new year and bring myself a year of abundance? Therefore, I'm going to have an auspicious new year feast my way. A smorgasbord to include all the major ethnicities in Singapore - Chinese, Indian, and Malay. That's right, I don't discriminate, I appreciate. So I went to a hawker center.
Eating at hawker centers in Singapore is a national pass time. They're everywhere! It use to be a bunch of street food vendors scattered throughout the city until the government decided to clump them together in designated areas to better monitor their sanitation standards. A great move on their part and a blessing to us all.
There are all sorts of hawker centers. Some serve either mainly Chinese, Malay, or Indian. I like the ones that serve all 3. My usual spot is Newton Circus. It also helps that its across the street from my hotel.
Tonight's experience was a bit disappointing as half the stalls were closed due to most of the Chinese vendors taking the night off to spend new year's day with their families. Understandable. But lucky for me, there were some troopers out there.
Chinese people loves seafood for special occasions. I am no exception so I ordered some tiger prawns grilled with garlic and BBQ skate wing topped with chili sauce. To make myself feel like I'm having a healthy meal, I ordered some steamed Chinese broccoli garnished with fried garlic and oyster sauce. The broccoli was steamed perfectly where it was still bright green with a slight crunch to it.
I would have preferred that they cook the garlic on the prawns more. The al dente garlic was a bit pungent. Plus I kept thinking it's might give me some major heartburn tonight. So I scraped most of it off. Without the garlic, the prawn itself were perfectly grilled and had a succulent natural sweetness to it.
I also forgot to ask to have the chili sauce for the skate wing on the side. I'm a spice wimp so it was too spicy for me. I love skate wing because I'm pretty sure it's one of the few fish that's always moist and sweet no matter how much you cook it.
Then to represent the Malays I ordered chicken and pork satays. 5 of each because they come in platters of 10. These are Malaysian style mini kebabs served with peanut sauce. Don't expect a savory peanut sauce with a slight peanut butter flavor. Its more of a sweet curry thickened with chopped peanuts. That's the style and it compliments the marinade of the satays very well.
Next came some lamb mutarbek. Its sort of an Indian quesadilla. It's naan bread filled with ground lamb, fried eggs, and onions with a side of curry instead of salsa for dipping. I was disappointed with this particular one. The naan was soggy, the lamb was very dry, and the onions weren't cooked properly. The curry dipping sauce didn't have much flavor either. The naan is suppose to be chewy with a slight crisp on the outside from it being seared to seal and meld the concoction.
Nonetheless it was a feast and I washed it all down with the juice from a sweet ice cold coconut! All for about $70 USD.
Happy Chinese New Year to me!
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