In less than 2 weeks’ time, we are celebrating Chinese New Year ! So has everyone start to stock up your fridge with food ? As a local Chinese custom, we usually have to stuff our fridge to the brim with all kinds of CNY food, to ensure that every year we will have never have a shortage of food to eat. Whilst these foods are be stocked up well in advance, there are also some which we will start preparing only when the date is nearer, such as the Prosperity YuSheng.
The tradition of “Lou Hei” is becoming very prominent, especially in Singapore where everyone will definitely gets to “lou” once or another before or during the CNY period. And besides the carrots, white and green radish that one can probably prepare from home, the rest of the yusheng ingredients has to be pretty much store bought. And the sauce that comes along with the yu-sheng usually stems from a sourish-sweet base, which can be made up of plum sauce, lemon sauce and lime juice.
To be honest, other than the fun of “throwing” the yusheng into the air for the “lou hei” purpose, I am probably not the best fan of yusheng as a food itself because of the sourish based sauce that comes along with it. Yu Sheng to me and many, is probably a kind of “chinese salad”. Frankly speaking, if I was given an option to enjoy my yusheng with, I would probably go for some kinds of dipping salad sauce instead as it will certainly be able to complement the “chinese salad” in a more enjoyable manner.
Hence, I decide to put my thoughts into action this time and convince everyone to enjoy the yusheng that has been drizzled with Mizkan’s sesame sauce. Amazingly, it was gladly acceptable to all of us as the fragrance from the sesame sauce complements the white sesame seeds and crushed peanuts that came along with the yusheng pretty well.
The mouth-watering Mizkan’s sesame sauce infuse itself into the crisp carrots and radish and made a perfect complement to the entire yusheng salad as compared to the otherwise standard boring plum sauce that we have had for years as a tradition. It also brings along a whole new insight on how we can enjoy our yusheng from now.
While I didn’t prepare this Yusheng myself, but for those who are gearing up to prepare your own, here’s a little tip which I garner from the old folks ~ soak the carrots and radish in some ice water for awhile before draining off the water to ensure a crispier texture. Other than Mizkan’s sesame sauce which is highly recommended for a go in the yusheng, sesame oil, a touch of pepper and cinnamon powder, the rest are pretty much a standard set which you can purchase readily off the shelves.
Hope everyone has a fantastically good time Lou-He-ing!!
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