Yee Sang is a salad that requires the diners some skills to toss the food with chopsticks – the higher the salad is tossed, the higher the level of success and prosperity might be achieved by those at the table.
The five-star hotel Equatorial in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 5 is serving the “prosperity” fish salad during February, the month of the Lunar New Year holidays.
This dish is considered a symbol of abundance, prosperity and vigor. The tradition of eating Yee Sang to raise good luck for the New Year is popular among overseas Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore. Families and friends gather around the table and, on cue, proceed to toss the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks while saying out loud Yee Sang (interpreted as a homophone for Yúshēng meaning an increase in abundance) to mark the start of a prosperous new year. It is customary that the higher you toss, the greater your fortunes.
Various ingredients are included in this dish such as different types of preserved vegetables (pickled leek, papaya, shredded cucumber, etc.), fresh salad (including radish and carrot), seasoning, sauces and raw fish, usually fresh salmon. The salmon is partly cooked with the aid the sauces, which also enhance the flavor of the salad.
All the ingredients are decoratively displayed on a large plate for the diners to join in tossing. During the tossing process, guests around the table make good wishes to each other for the year.
The hotel Equatorial serves the salad at Orientica Restaurant. It also provides Yee Sang for take away.
