It turns out that Singaporeans have a necessary appetizer on the New Year's Eve dinner table-fishing for raw fish. "Fishing" means "mixing" in Cantonese. "Fishing, fishing" actually requires everyone to mix colorful shredded vegetables and ingredients with sashimi. The higher the "fishing" and the higher the clip, it indicates a step-by-step promotion, and there is a beautiful meaning of "wind and water" and more and more prosperity. During the Lunar New Year, families get together. Adults like the auspicious meaning of fishing for raw fish, while children like the lively atmosphere of fishing for raw fish for the whole family. Therefore, in Singapore, fishing for raw fish is an indispensable highlight of the New Year's Eve dinner.
It is said that the earliest origin of this dish is in the south of China, where the river network is dense and the ditches are criss-crossing, and it has been the land of fish and rice since ancient times. Perhaps the first person to eat fresh fish raw found the delicacy of raw fish, and this eating method was gradually popularized and continued. The local people ate it with onion and ginger, sour buckwheat head, coriander and other vegetables, and added a little sauce to eat it with raw fish, which became a delicious dish with local characteristics. Obviously, the original fishermen hardly need cooking skills, which is convenient and easy to learn, delicious and affordable. Therefore, the practice of this delicious food followed the ancestors of Chinese in Nanyang, all the way across the ocean, leaving their homes and coming to the present Singapore-Malaysia region.
The core material for fishing raw fish is naturally sashimi. The fish originally used were freshwater fish pomfret or more expensive western saury. This dish was once very popular in Guangdong and Hongkong in China. However, after more than half a century of changes, Hong Kong and Guangdong no longer have the tradition of fishing for raw fish during the Chinese New Year. This dish has unexpectedly developed in Singapore and Malaysia, and it has been served on the dinner table of every Chinese family.
According to Singapore, the fishermen who appear on the New Year's Eve dinner table are already New Year's food improved and developed by four famous Singaporean chefs in the1960s. These four famous chefs were called the "Four Kings" in Singapore's chefs at that time, and they were the representatives of the highest level of cooking. The improved raw fish mostly use marine fish such as salmon as the main ingredient; The bottom of the dish is paved with shredded red and white radish, shredded celery, shredded lettuce and shredded fruits of various colors, and then sprinkled with chopped peanuts, dried fruits, crisp chips, sweet and sour sauce, etc., which is colorful and delicious, making people's index fingers move greatly. Wait for everyone to "fish" the raw fish, clip an entrance, the fish fillets are fresh, the dried fruits are crisp, the shredded vegetables are sweet, the shredded fruits are sweet, and the secret sauce is sour and refreshing. What a delicious dish with good color and taste!
More importantly, the concept of fresh ingredients, not over-cooking, low oil and salt, low fat and low calories is just in line with the trend of healthy eating and healthy Chinese New Year. In the new year's cuisine series, which makes people "gain three pounds every festive season", fishing for raw fish is simply a refreshing and refreshing clean stream.
On New Year's Eve, when eating raw fish in a restaurant, waiters often sprinkle the ingredients on the spot and place sashimi. Every time they sprinkle them, they will shout a pleasing and auspicious word: "Fish" every year, good luck, arachis duranensis, sweet honey, lucky strike ... The guests then "fish" the sashimi sprinkled with the ingredients, shouting "while fishing" Huat ah (send it)! " Even young people and children whose Chinese level has deteriorated have followed their families to "huat ah! huat ah！” Such a lively scene, cheerful atmosphere, than China's New Year's Eve.
It's hard to imagine a group of blond westerners around a few fish slices or a bowl of salad, shouting "Fortune! Fortune！” However, in the world of Chinese people, regardless of region or nationality, in the New Year, we will change the usual moderation and express our blessings and hopes! Get it!
The area of Singapore is only 7 19 square kilometers, which is only one tenth of that of Shanghai. There is no largest population migration in the world-Spring Festival travel rush; There is no TV program with the widest coverage in the world-Spring Festival Evening; There is hardly even a division between the north and the south and a difference between the four seasons. The earliest Hong Kong merchants and laborers who went to Nanyang came to a land far away from the old country, but they kept the annual flavor and dishes of China from generation to generation and passed them on. Children who used to fish and eat meat on the banks of the Pearl River may have now bred a large family of four or five generations in Xingzhou. For Chinese Singaporeans who were born and raised in Singapore, the memory of their parents clinging to their hands to catch fish on New Year's Eve will become a happy picture that will be relived from generation to generation.
With the living standard getting higher and higher, the western saury, once a luxury on the dining table, has been upgraded to salmon, as well as more advanced Beiqibei, Boston lobster and Sri Lankan crab ... The world is changing, and even the fish is changing, but the cultural background and emotional memory of Chinese people will last forever.
Sin Chew Cuisine has been imported for hundreds of years. Chinese live all over the world, and Wan Li is beautiful.