Reunion Dinner

Reunion Dinner with my family and relatives on 23rd January 2009...

It is a tradition for chinese to have reunion dinner with relatives during Chinese New Year period...

We had our reunion dinner at brickfields, Kuala Lumpur...

Yes, my hometown is Kuala Lumpur...

For Chinese New Year period....we usually have "lou sang" a.k.a "yu sheng"....

Lets go more into the history of "yu sheng"....

Fishermen along the coast of Guangzhou traditionally celebrated Renri, the seventh day of the Chinese New Year, by feasting on their catches. This practice is believed to have started in Chaozhou and Shantou as far back as the Southern Song Dynasty.

In Malaya's colonial past, migrants imported this tradition; porridge stalls sold a raw fish dish which is believed to have originated in Jiangmen, Guangdong province that consisted of fish, turnip and carrot strips, which was served with condiments of oil, vinegar and sugar that were mixed in by customers.

The modern yu sheng dish originated in during Chinese New Year in 1964 in Lai Wah Restaurant and was invented by master chef Than Mui Kai (Tham Yu Kai, co-head chef of Lai Wah restaurant)as a symbol of prosperity and good health amongst the Chinese. Together with Lau Yoke Pui (co-head chef of Lai Wah Restaurant), Hooi Kok Wai (founder of Dragon-Phoenix Restaurant) and Sin Leong, Than Mui Kai was named as one of the Four Heavenly Culinary Kings of Singapore some 40 years ago for their Cantonese culinary prowess and ingenuity.

The tradition is still widely practiced till today and has since spread to many parts of Asia, although not practised as much as in Malaysia and Singapore.

The taste of the original raw fish dish was standardized with a special sauce using plum sauce, rice vinegar, kumquat paste and sesame oil, and the fish was served with carrots, chilli, turnips, limes, jellyfish, red pickled ginger, sun-dried oranges and other ingredients, turning this simple dish into an exquisite salad with 27 ingredients.

The original dish used raw mackerel, although in deference to the popular wishes of customers, salmon was later offered as an alternative due to the growing popularity of Salmon.

Since then, yu sheng has become a staple Chinese New Year dish in Malaysia as well as in Chinese communities in Singapore and is typically available only during this festive season.

Today, this dish is served as an appetizer to raise 'good luck' for the new year and is usually eaten on Renri, the seventh day of the Chinese New Year. In a celebration known as "lo hei" (Cantonese 撈起 or 捞起), families and friends gather around the table and, on cue, proceed to toss the shredded ingredients into the air with chopsticks while saying auspicious wishes out loud to mark the start of a prosperous new year and it's customary that the higher you toss, the greater your fortunes!

Typical ingredients include : fresh salmon, daikon (white radish), carrot, red pepper (capsicum), ginger, daun limau nipis (lime tree leaves), Chinese parsley, chopped peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, Chinese shrimp crackers (or fried dried shrimp), five spice powder. The dressing is made primarily from plum sauce.

This is yu sheng - before mixing up the ingredients...And now the process of mixing it up~ ^_^
The meals we had during the reunion dinner..fish, prawns, tofu, vegetables, eggs, and more...
I drank some red wine on that day...

Although excessive alcohol consumption has adverse health effects, epidemiological studies have consistently demonstrated that moderate consumption of alcohol and wine is statistically associated with a decrease in death due to cardiovascular events such as heart failure.

-The End-