'Yu sheng' for an auspicious year

'Yu sheng' for an auspicious year

Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

For the first time ever in the country, Chinese New Year is being
commemorated as a national holiday, and Chinese-Indonesians
across the country may openly celebrate the age-old tradition of
new year, known here as Imlek, with good cheer and an abundance
of good food.

This year's new year falls on Saturday, Feb. 1, and will mark
the first day of the Year of the Ram.

Preparations for the new year usually begin about a month
beforehand, when people start buying presents, decorative
materials, food and clothing. Houses are cleaned from top to
bottom to sweep away any traces of bad luck.

The real celebration begins on the eve of the new year when
the whole family gathers to feast on the specially prepared new
year dinner, the reunion dinner. Tradition and rituals are
carefully observed in everything from the food to clothing, to
ensure an auspicious start to the new year.

"Popularly recognized as the Spring Festival, the new year
usually lasts for 15 days," said F & B Coordinator at Millenium
Hotel, Central Jakarta, Yoyo Mulyono.

Eating meat and slaughtering livestock is considered
inauspicious, and the special food prepared for the reunion
dinner is therefore largely vegetarian or composed of seafood and
fish.

The Chinese word for fish, yu, has the same pronunciation as
the word for "excess", and a special raw fish salad dish,yu sheng
(sheng meaning "life"), eaten on the day, is believed to ensure
long life and abundant wealth.

"Yu sheng is an appetizer made from fish and a variety of
finely shredded vegetables served with special dressings," hotel
F & B Director Roni Martadinata said.

Salmon is served with the various brightly colored shredded
vegetables, the centerpiece being shredded carrots and white
radish, followed by yellow and red ginger, cucumber, onion,
shredded green melon and sweetened melon.

The salad is first mixed with lime juice, raw fish plum sauce,
vegetable oil, cinnamon, pepper and sesame seeds to give a sweet,
but strong gingery taste.

Using chopsticks, the salad is traditionally tossed by diners,
as the Chinese believe that the higher you toss the more
prosperous you will become, Roni said, explaining that diners
would usually recite wishes for good luck while tossing the
salad.

"The act of tossing raw fish is referred to as lao qi or
tossing up good fortune," he said.

Other auspicious foods usually served during new year
celebrations include prawns for liveliness and happiness, ho xi
(dried oysters), for all things good, an edible hair-like
seaweed,fai hai (angel hair) to bring prosperity, and jiaozi
(dumplings boiled in water), to signify a long-lost good wish for
a family.

Millenium Hotel's Hua Ting Chinese Restaurant will serve yu
sheng from new year's eve for the 15 days of the traditional new
year celebration.

The hotel will also organize a barongsai (lion dance) to kick
off the Year of the Ram.