This year, the Chinese New Year fell on February 7th. We got together that weekend to celebrate the year of the mouse. We decided to append CNY with CVNY (Chinese Vietnamese New Year) as a nod to our buddy of Vietnamese origins, who also celebrates the lunar new year. Hehehe...
The night started off with yee sang, a fish salad that is a tradition for many Malaysian Chinese families. Jess had just returned from a trip home to Malaysia and brought back with her a yee sang kit. All we had to do was add the fish, grated carrots and daikon. Each ingredient plays on homonyms and has a significance to it. For example, fish or 'yu' also means abundance and raw or 'sang' also means life. So yee sang implies the abundance of life. It is also referred to as 'lo sang', meaning tossing up of good fortune.
Our first-timers got the hang of the tossing pretty quickly. We started out pretty shy and quiet, but next thing you knew, everyone was adding their good luck and prosperity wishes for the new year to the mix. I've heard that this is a tradition that's unique to Malaysia and Singapore as this is new to many of my friends from Taiwan, China or Hong Kong. Something for us Malaysians to be proud of. ;-)
Then it was time to feast our yee sang and hot pot dinner. Yummy!
