Want to know how to make 'New Year Fish Yee Sang'? Just click PLAY for the video.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
THE "X" IN X'MAS
I know I said you can improvise and compromise when it comes to yee sang. And you SHOULD, just to give life variety. But if you're considering turkey with yee sang, I'm telling you no - never ever!
That's what a friend of mine proposed for his family's Christmas dinner this year, to which I was invited. I thought he was either joking or he had brain fever. It was neither. He was serious. I was equally serious when I declined the invitation to his Christmas repast.
At this juncture, let me assure you that meat - any kind of meat - will NOT go down with yee sang ingredients or its dressing. Most kinds of seafood will blend, but some should not be taken uncooked. But when it comes to mixing any kind of meat - rare, medium or well-done - in your yee sang, place a big "X" across the idea.
That doesn't mean you can't have yee sang as an additional item - as a starter, for instance, before you tuck into the turkey. And you can loh hey, wishing for peace on earth and goodwill to all mankind. Like I always say, it's an endearing custom.
Have yourself a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
BOLDWRITER
That's what a friend of mine proposed for his family's Christmas dinner this year, to which I was invited. I thought he was either joking or he had brain fever. It was neither. He was serious. I was equally serious when I declined the invitation to his Christmas repast.
At this juncture, let me assure you that meat - any kind of meat - will NOT go down with yee sang ingredients or its dressing. Most kinds of seafood will blend, but some should not be taken uncooked. But when it comes to mixing any kind of meat - rare, medium or well-done - in your yee sang, place a big "X" across the idea.
That doesn't mean you can't have yee sang as an additional item - as a starter, for instance, before you tuck into the turkey. And you can loh hey, wishing for peace on earth and goodwill to all mankind. Like I always say, it's an endearing custom.
Have yourself a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
BOLDWRITER
YOU CAN ALWAYS BEND
Most of the time we make rules and impose conditions and adhere to them strictly without bothering to ask ourselves why. Take, for instance, the enjoyment of yee sang. Yes, yee sang is a festive delicacy and is associated with family reunion. I'm all for the preservation of this endearing tradition. That doesn't mean, however, the dish should be taboo at other times.
Last year, when April came round, I discovered that there were three packets of yee sang left over from the festive season. (They were the packagings not accompanied by sashimi, of course.) I decided to throw convention to the winds and hold a yee sang party at that time of year.
I invited a few friends over and treated them to yee sang out-of-season. We decided to undertake yee sang R&D by adding extra ingredients like jack-fruit and prawn-crackers! For the sashimi, we had boiled cuttlefish cut into thin strips.
Then we broke tradition even further by dining on the lawn, seated on a large mat round the yee sang platter. And, yes, we "loh hey-ed", wishing for everything from cooler weather to the jackpot prize of the forthcoming big-sweep draw! Our ancestors would have fainted!
But you see what I mean when I say you can really bend the rules, don't you?
-BOLDWRITER-
Last year, when April came round, I discovered that there were three packets of yee sang left over from the festive season. (They were the packagings not accompanied by sashimi, of course.) I decided to throw convention to the winds and hold a yee sang party at that time of year.
I invited a few friends over and treated them to yee sang out-of-season. We decided to undertake yee sang R&D by adding extra ingredients like jack-fruit and prawn-crackers! For the sashimi, we had boiled cuttlefish cut into thin strips.
Then we broke tradition even further by dining on the lawn, seated on a large mat round the yee sang platter. And, yes, we "loh hey-ed", wishing for everything from cooler weather to the jackpot prize of the forthcoming big-sweep draw! Our ancestors would have fainted!
But you see what I mean when I say you can really bend the rules, don't you?
-BOLDWRITER-
SASHIMI ECSTASY
I have a friend who doesn't fancy sashimi because it's raw. Well, he'll be glad to know he's not alone in this aversion. In the West, most people are not overly fond of uncooked marine catch (more's the pity, if you ask me).
Strangely enough, this friend of mine insists that, without sashimi, something seems to be lacking each time he tucks into yee sang. He wanted to know whether the jellyfish, salmon, cod or whatever-it-is from Neptune's kingdom could be cooked before it was mixed with the other yee sang ingredients. That, I replied, would be sacrilege, or idiocy, or both! Cooked sashimi, indeed!
I provided him with a remedy. Medium-sized prawns, steamed to perfection, then shelled and halved. They blend beautifully with the other yee sang ingredients and the sauce. My friend tried it, then insisted I was the Yee Sang Saint.
-BOLDWRITER-
Strangely enough, this friend of mine insists that, without sashimi, something seems to be lacking each time he tucks into yee sang. He wanted to know whether the jellyfish, salmon, cod or whatever-it-is from Neptune's kingdom could be cooked before it was mixed with the other yee sang ingredients. That, I replied, would be sacrilege, or idiocy, or both! Cooked sashimi, indeed!
I provided him with a remedy. Medium-sized prawns, steamed to perfection, then shelled and halved. They blend beautifully with the other yee sang ingredients and the sauce. My friend tried it, then insisted I was the Yee Sang Saint.
A piece of advice to all you sashimi aficionados. Don't even dream of taking the prawns uncooked. Try it and your dream will turn into a gastronomic nightmare, I assure you!
-BOLDWRITER-
CREATION OF MANKIND, CASUAL-LIKE
In the very first article I touched on the creation of mankind by the goddess Nuwa. What I omitted to mention was the way in which we were created. What I'm about to tell you isn't quite a morale booster, I'm afraid - not from the human viewpoint anyway. Nuwa took seven days to create living beings. We were given form only on the seventh and last day. Chickens came first, followed by dogs, sheep, swine, cows and horses, in that order. Finally came humans! Feeling indignant? Wait - there's more to come that you won't quite relish.
When the seventh day arrived, Nuwa started creating our distant ancestors out of yellow clay, one at a time. It didn't take long before she grew tired of the process. So she resorted to ingenuity. She dipped a rope in soft clay and swung the rope desultorily. Wherever each blob of clay landed, there sprang up one more member of homo sapiens!
Imagine chickens, dogs, sheep and all the rest having precedence over us. Then, when our turn came, we were given corporeal form with casual swings of a rope dipped in mud! I wonder which Mandarin oldie the goddess was humming when she swung that rope.
Still, we celebrate that day as Renri and we feast on yee sang on that day. But, if you ask me, yee sang more than makes up for the uncomplimentary history of our creation. Three cheers for yee sang
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)