The Year of the Pig is nearly here and chefs around the city are preparing lots of fine dishes to served on the traditional lazy Susan for extended Chinese families to have fun together.

For many Chinese people the preferred choices on special occasions are the expensive shark's fin soup, abalone, fish maw and sea cucumber. Still, most diners in Bangkok know that there is one dish that shouldn't be missed during the Chinese New Year. It's not expensive or rare and its ingredients are quite simple - fresh raw fish with fresh and preserved vegetables served with a sweet and sour sauce.

This dish - called yee sang in Cantonese and yu sheng in Mandarin - is only served during the New Year festival; not before, not after.

Singaporean chef Willment Leong, the culinary director at Bangkok's Swissotel Le Concorde, says the dish was introduced in the island state in 1962 by a Chinese chef. Since then it's become a bit of a tradition and is getting more popular.

"Three years ago, I first introduced yee sang at a staff party at the hotel. Everyone liked it, so I thought I would put it on the New Year menu as well," Leong says.

At the Loong Foong restaurant, yee sang is served with shredded vegetables. The colour scheme is white, red, green and orange, and the serving comes with three different types of fresh, sliced raw fish and five types of sauces.

"In Singapore, yee sang decorated with abalone might cost you up to Bt5,000. But at Loong Foong we serve the basic version."

Besides, serving yee sang during the New Year is symbolic. "The three fish have their own meanings. Salmon symbolises gold, tuna is for luck and sea bass represents health.

"The idea is that eating them together will bring prosperity, luck and good health throughout the coming year."

Leong says the serving ritual is also very symbolic. Diners first begin by squeezing lime onto the raw fish in order to kill any bacteria. Then the sea bass is put onto the main plate. "Now everyone stands up, and the person who put the fish onto the plate will wish everyone good health."

Then comes the tuna and the server wishes everyone good luck, followed by salmon when everyone is wished prosperity for the coming year.

Then come the sauces - plum sauce, lime juice, sesame oil, garlic oil and cooking oil. These too are symbolic and stand for gold, good business, a better life, a prosperous family and happiness, respectively. The sauces are all poured onto the plate and are garnished with five-spice powder and white pepper, both usually served in red packets. "At this point, everyone at the table shouts 'wealthy' out loud a number of times."

Then things become even more amusing. Everyone at the table tosses the yee sang as high as they can, and there's usually bits of shredded radish, carrot and cucumber flying around. The veggies are shredded into long strips to symbolise longevity. While tossing the salad, everyone shouts out "good luck". Once the salad is sufficiently mixed, it's time for each individual to start hunting for a slice of fish.

Yee sang doesn't just start the year off with good health, it also turns a special occasion into a fun-filled adventure.

Juthamas Cholthavornpong

The Nation

The writer can be contacted at foodlife@nationgroup.com.

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Ring in the Pig

At Loong Foong, one serving of yee sang for six costs Bt188 per person. The restaurant also serves a variety of dim sum.

The restaurant is also offering a special Longevity Set Dinner from February 18 to March 14. The set features braised shark's fin with crab meat, stewed goose feet with sea moss and Chinese mushrooms in a clay pot, wok-fried grouper, barbecued spare ribs, wok-fried spinach, fried rice with tiger prawns and chilled mango, along with pomelo and sago soup.

The price is Bt1,288 for two.

Call (02) 694 2222, extension 1540-1.