鱼生 pronounced as yu sheng (in Mandarin) or yee sang (in Cantonese). This dish has been well received by the Chinese and it is particularly significant to be served during the CNY period, specifically on the 7th day, for it's symbolic meaning - abundance of prosperity! Actually, now in the modern days, any day can be a good day as long as everyone is there to make a toss. My first impression of yu sheng, very long ago, was an instant kind where everything was pre-prepped, packed in sealed plastics, and nicely stuffed into a big, red box. All you have to do is just open them up, arrange them accordingly on a wide, flat plate, and drizzle the given condiments on top before the tossing fun begins. Frankly, I never really like it for the yucky aftertaste. Everything put into the mouth tasted artificial. And I don't even have an idea what the red and green strips are made of! That first impression just killed my craze for it. Not until this year, Zmei and I made our own healthier yu sheng from fresh vegetables, fruit, and anything that can be found in the kitchen.

Little did I know that each ingredients used in yu sheng has its corresponding greetings, either based on its name in Chinese, colour, or taste. Therefore, we tried our best in finding the healthy substitutes that kinda able to carry the meaning. Keropok ikan was used to replace the raw fish. Since we're amatuer in this and have never handle any raw fish as ingredient, we went for the cooked one. In this case, a deep-fried one. At the same time, it can be taken as the deep-fried flour crisp. Kill two birds with one stone, how bout that? Mind you to keep them in an air-tight container to maintain the crisp and freshness till it's served. I totally forgot about that and the keropok became stale by the time I discovered it. Grapefruit was used instead of pomelo/lime. Nevertheless, they're still of the same family. And it looks like raw tuna, doesn't it? Considering that I've a negative encounter with raw radish and to be on the safe side, I chose to use sengkuang and green bell pepper. And the red and yellow must come together as one. Ha! Peanut crumbs for sesame peanut brittle crumbs. Lastly, due to time constraint, we've Kewpie Dressing Roasted Sesame to the rescue as the final touch. Still, there are some ingredients which are just for aesthetic purposes 😁

My family and I had our yu sheng after dinner on the first day of CNY as a dessert instead as an appetizer. I took the chance to introduce each ingredient with their respective auspicious greeting to the table. By the reason of these being new to me, I guess they'll be impressed with what I've discovered too despite me fiddling my phone searching for the right phrase to go with the ingredient I'm pointing at. And not to forget I'm not really good with Chinese character so I got some pronunciation to be taken care of. The following was my script of the day.

恭喜发财 万事如意 gong xi fa cai  wan shi ru yi

年年有余 nian nian you yu (fish)

大吉大利 da ji da li (pomelo/lime)

招财进宝 zhao cai jin bao (pepper)

一本万利 财源广进 yi ben wan li  cai yuan guang jin (oil)

鸿运当头 hong yun dang tou (carrot)

青春常驻 qing chun chang zhu (green radish)

风生水起 步步高升 feng sheng shui qi  bu bu gao sheng (white radish)

金银满屋 jin yin man wu (peanut crumbs)

生意兴隆 sheng yi xing long (sesame seeds)

甜甜蜜蜜 tian tian mi mi (plum sauce)

满地黄金 man di huang jin (deep-fried flour crisps)

Translation:

Congratulations on your wealth, may all your wishes be fulfilled

Abundance through the year

Good luck and smooth sailing

Attract wealth and treasures

Make 10, 000 times of profit with your capital, numerous sources of wealth

Good luck is approaching

Forever young

Progress at a fast pace, reaching higher level with each step

Household filled with gold and silver

Prosperity for the business

May life always be sweet

Floor full of gold

Toss them up the air!

What a vibrant looking salad, right? And the taste was on point that you wouldn't turn down a bowl even with a full stomach. The tangy grapefruit and sweet, crunchy bell peppers made it served right as a dessert. I would definitely make one again next year, maybe can try out savoury one! And also get the introductory steps right 😂

Comment down below to share with me your lou sang moments! A photo of it would be great too for any extraordinary yusheng! Or if you have experience making one of your own, share with me some tips so I can be better for my next one. Maybe you would like to make something like mine, the recipe is down below. Remember to show me your final product!

*the ingredients are of a rough estimation

Weights & Dresses,
Zyin

This post is already drowned in my draft folder for such a long time. I've even finished my two jars of kimchi. I was into Korean food at that time. Since it's quite pricey to eat outside and there wasn't any Korean cuisine in my town, I decided to make some at home so I can have it with anything whenever I want it. Even if it's just white rice.

It was just the right timing when my mom bought a napa cabbage and she didn't use it. So, I'll just have to scavenge any useable ingredients in the fridge/kitchen to get readeah!

This is the original recipe by the kitchn:

1 medium head napa cabbage

1/4 cup sea salt/kosher salt

Water

1 tbsp grated garlic

1 tsp grated ginger

1 tsp sugar

2 - 3 tbsp seafood flavour/water

1 - 5 tbsp Korean red pepper flakes

8 ounces Korean radish/daikon

4 scallions

Again, I have adapted the recipe for this is an unplanned cooking. In other words, I do not have certain ingredients. This also gave me an idea to #recipetweak !

What I did first was to clean my 1 medium head napa cabbage before slicing them into 2-inch-wide strips.

Then, I transferred the strips of cabbage into a bigger bowl (preferably not plastic or metal one) to make it easier to do the salting. If you look clearly into the photo, you can see the 1/4 cup of salt. You'll have to keep massaging the cabbage until they soften before adding in water until all the cabbage is all covered. After that, you'll have to get a plate or something flat and something heavy to compress the cabbage into the water for 1 - 2 hours. I left it for 2 hours. Maybe this is why it gets so crunchy at the end.

You'll have to rinse those cabbage for three times and leave it in a colander for 15 - 20 minutes to strain out the water.

While waiting for the 20 minutes to pass by, you can mix the 1 tbsp of finely chopped garlic, 1 tsp pf finely chopped ginger, 1 tsp sugar and 3 tbsp water (I do not have seafood flavour) to make the smooth paste before adding in red pepper flakes.

 Instead of using Korean red pepper flakes, I substituted it with Domino's red pepper flakes. I used around 3 tbsp of those red pepper flakes and I could taste the spiciness. You can actually add up to 5 tbsp.

Then, go back to your cabbage and squeeze it to make sure that there is no excess water in it. After that, you may mix all the ingredients - cabbage, 8 ounces of carrot (to substitute radish/daikon), 2 scallions and the seasoning paste thoroughly.

Finally, you can have those kimchi evenly coated with spices packed into jars. Make sure that you leave at least 1 inch of headspace before you close the lids. You should leave the jars at room temperature for 1 - 5 days before putting it in the fridge. During the 5 days period, do check the kimchi daily to make sure that the kimchi is soaked in the brine and to let go some fermentation gases.

I actually tested the kimchi every day. When you have it right away, it's crunchier and juicier compared to five days later. In my opinion, the tastiest would be on its third day at room temperature. I regretted why didn't I put one of the jars into the fridge at that time. It had become too sour for kimchi on the fifth day.

How would you like kimchi with? Share with me!

Weights & Dresses,

Zyin
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If you haven't know Tasty, it is another sub-site by BuzzFeed that specifically shares short videos on how to cook deliciously looking food that you never thought you can ever cook. Their speed up videos, even though mostly are only around one minute, are enough to make you change your mind on how you think you can cook.

Zmei and I came across this video, on how to cook Mozzarella-Stuffed Slow Cooker Meatballs, and decided to give it a try.

This is the original recipe by Tasty :

Low moisture mozzarella cheese (cut into 3/4 inch cubes)

1 lb ground beef

1 pound hot Italian sausage

1/2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

1 cup bread crumbs

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

2 eggs

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup chopped parsley

Tomato sauce

We adapted the recipe according to our family taste and what we found available in the kitchen. For some of the ingredients that I did not mention how much I have used, you will just have to agak-agak. This is because I did the same.

Mix the ingredients from No. 2 to No. 10 in a large bowl with your hands...as this will improve the texture. Roll the mixture to form a ball size that you desire. Then, push a cheese, ingredient No.1, into the center of the rolled balls to cover it up. Dip the porkballs into the heating tomato puree to cook it.

I made a video too so that it will be easier for you and I do not have to explain so much:

Tadahhh~~~ This is the end product. Since we're preparing this for lunch, we cooked some stir-fry spaghetti by using the remaining tomato puree to go with the porkballs. Button mushrooms and onion are cooked until an aromatic scent is smelled before adding in cooked spaghetti and followed by the tomato puree. Zmei made those roasted vege too!

Overall, this plate of dish is a great combo. The stir-fry spaghetti was way nicer compared to the usual spaghetti with sauce topped on it that we used to cooked. The roasted vege was good and healthy, only used black pepper, salt and virgin olive oil, even though it is kinda salty on first trial. More vege was added later to balance out the taste. The porkballs, on the other hand, is not what I expected. I think I put too much of cornstarch...it's too tender, or is it because of too much sausages.

Around 2 hrs are used to prepare ingredients and cook the dish. This serving is enough for 5 person.