Fruits Yu Sheng

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Happy Lunar New Year, 猴年快乐! I hope everyone has eaten lots of delicious CNY goodies and collected many red packets. This year, I decided to make fruits yu sheng (yee sang/鱼生), a fruity twist to the usual Chinese new year raw fish salad. This yu sheng salad is made with fresh fruits and vegetables. Doesn’t it still resemble the typical yu sheng to you? For those staying overseas, the fruity ingredients will be easier to gather than the usual yu sheng toppings.

See Also:

• Yu Sheng (CNY Raw Fish Salad) Recipe
• Spinach with Baby Abalone Recipe
• Easy Chinese New Year Recipes

The first time my family saw it, they thought it was colourful, refreshing and healthy. After all that feasting, they definitely welcomed this healthy fruits platter.

CNY Leftover Ideas:

• Nian Gao with Egg Recipe
• Bak Kwa Fried Rice Recipe
• Chinese New Year Rice Porridge Recipe

If you like, you can also buy one of those pre-packaged yee sang pack from the supermarkets to add to this salad. Personally, I didn’t really like adding the overly sweet and preserved stuff to this real fruits salad.

I used the usual auspicious CNY fruits such as pineapple, pomegranate, pomelo and mandarin oranges. Use any sweet fruit that is red (signifies 鸿运当头; I used strawberry), green (signifies 青春常驻; I used kiwi) or golden (signifies prosperity). Other fruits that are suitable include star fruit (cut them to star shapes), canned longan or rambutan and fresh grapes (signifies roundness and completeness). You can also add luxury items such as sashimi (年年有余), abalone (年年包有余) or surf clams (hokkigai) to the salad. The other usual yee sang ingredients which signifies goodwill for the coming year are also here: lime, roasted sesame seeds (生意兴隆), olive oil (多多油水), pok chui crackers (翩地黄金), crushed roasted peanuts (金银满屋), 5-spice powder (五福临门), cinnamon and white pepper powder (招财进宝) and plum sauce (甜甜蜜蜜). With all these colours and symbols, I think it is as lucky as any other yee sang.

Remember to toss the yee sang high and say auspicious wishes (吉祥话) during “lo hei” (salad tossing) ceremony. Have a lucky and happy new year!