This might just be the messiest way to celebrate
Chinese New Year.
For once, it is okay to play with food.
It’s loud, it's messy, and it’s fun.
This is the prosperity toss, aka yu sheng or lo hei.
So lo hei is a big, messy,
very fun,
loud and messy,
interactive and happy,
salad thing.
And lo hei is something that
every Singaporean grew up doing.
People do it because it's fun,
and you know when you start the new year,
you always want to start off on a big, vibrant note.
Hi, I'm May. I'm from Singapore.
Lo hei just means to toss up.
It's actually a Cantonese phrase.
Hi, I'm Victoria. I'm from Singapore.
I think the reason why you need to toss it really high is
the higher you toss,
the more prosperous you're going to be in the new year.
The higher, the bigger, the better.
We basically shout anything that is good.
"May your career reach a higher note."
"May you have lots of gold."
"May you become slimmer."
"May you get prettier."
"Lots of kids, lots of houses."
"No kids."
"Grow more hair."
"CRAZY RICH ASIANS!"
Hi
Hi, my name is LiYing, and I'm actually from Malaysia.
Ingredient-wise, it’s pretty close.
Well as you can see here,
you know, there are like lots of stuff all around the plate,
but we try to keep everything in
because we believe that when you keep everything in,
all your fortune will be kept inside,
it wouldn't be flying all around.
My name is Yifei. I'm from mainland China, from Shanghai.
Actually, I only learned about lo hei when I came to Hong Kong.
There's no lo hei back in mainland China.
We all have different traditions.
Basically, everyone will get together and eat good food.
Like in the northern part, they will make dumplings.
Lo hei is a creation of Chinese immigrants,
who have been living in Southeast Asia for over 600 years.
It is widely believed that four Cantonese chefs in Singapore,
dubbed the “four heavenly kings,”
developed the modern version of lo hei.
But Malaysians also lay claim to the origin of the dish,
tracing it to a Malaysian-Chinese caterer in the 1940s.
If you want to try lo hei at home with your family and friends,
here’s what you need.
“May your year end with surplus.”
“May you have great luck and profit.”
Mix them together, and toss everything as high as you can.
For a few years in a row, I think my memory is that,
my mom keeps saying,
"Please give my daughter more boyfriends."
Yeah. That's it.
When I was a kid,
this was definitely one of the things that I would look forward to.
Once, I saw my brother-in-law basically carry my nephew
into the table so that he could reach.
So, like,
my nephew became like the chopsticks while he did it himself.
I remember one year
when we were celebrating Chinese New Year overseas in Boston,
I carried one of these things over in my suitcase.
Like in a vacuum-sealed pack,
just so my family could do this in Boston.
So, back at home,
I actually got myself special chopsticks
which is way longer than this.
(How long is yours?)
It's way longer, it's so long.
So yeah, that's my tip.
My secret to the toss is just do it as high as you can
and toss everything and ignore the messiness
because that makes a great salad. Messiness.
So my secret to getting the veggies as high as possible
is a wrist motion.
It's all in the wrist. It's a very precise, high-velocity flick.
(You don't actually practice, do you?)
No.
Happy Chinese New Year!
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