CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM Diners call out "lo hei" as they toss a traditional salad served in Singapore for the new year. Allison Ramberg, left, Greg Wong, Tristan Choi, Gemma Brown, Brandie Kamiya, Michelle Agasa, Vivienne Gan and Sornkom Sangngam -- all employees of the Kahala Mandarin Oriental -- dip into a communal salad like one that will be served at a private party at the Mandarin later this month.

Tossed salad

A Lunar New Year tradition brings
wishes for prosperity and health

The truly great holidays are the ones in which you get to play with your food. Or better yet, throw it. In Singapore for the Lunar New Year, celebrants use long chopsticks to flick veggies skyward, in a literal expression of the tossed salad. In this, they have the blessing of Mom, Dad and restaurant managers.

New Year Festivities Friday: 5 to 10 p.m. at Fort Street Mall. Includes lion dancing, food and craft booths, fireworks. Saturday: Chinatown street festival, 6 to 10 p.m., includes lion dances, fireworks and booths selling foods, clothing, arts, crafts, games, gifts. Sunday: Lion dance at 5:15 p.m. from Wahiawa Town Center to Wahiawa Shopping Center. Food, firecrackers and mahjong fortune readings until 7 p.m. at town center. Lucky Foods The seven crucial Yu Sheng ingredients are associated with these good wishes: Fish: May you receive good tidings in abundance year after year Turnip or lettuce: May your fortunes rise with the wind and tide Oil: May all things happen according to your wishes Plum sauce: May all your hallways be filled with gold and jade Spices (pepper and Chinese five-spice powder): May good luck be ahead of you Lime: Best of luck and best of prosperity Fried chips: May the ground you tread on be covered with gold Source: Singapore Tourism Board

The dish is Yu Sheng, which means Lucky Raw Fish, and it is traditionally the opening course in a new year's meal. "And then they clean out the mess and the real feast begins," says Vivienne Gan of the Kahala Mandarin Oriental, which will host a Yu Sheng tossing as part of a private new year party later this month.

The Year of the Rooster dawns next Wednesday (Chinatown celebrations are this weekend), so Gan and executive chef Wayne Hirabayashi were good enough to put together a Yu Sheng table and gather enough people for a demonstration.

The point of Yu Sheng is to secure prosperity in the year to come, and a running patter on the part of the host, or waiter, is part of the deal, as is a meticulous set-up.

A mound of shredded vegetables should be at centerstage, surrounded by five mounds of raw fish and small dishes holding flavorings.

As each is added to the salad, the server calls out a wish for health or wealth (mostly wealth), and in the end the diners toss the salad and call out "lo hei!" -- literally "to rise" or "mix it up," but with the sentimental meaning "to prosper more and more."

Supposedly, the higher you toss without making a mess, the more luck you earn.

The dish was traditionally served on the seventh day of the new year -- Ren Ri, the Day of Mankind, considered the birthday of all humans. "In place of a birthday cake you have this," Gan says.

These days, the dish may be served throughout the two-week new-year period. More symbolic than sacred, Yu Sheng allows for creativity, so restaurants often vamp on the standard ingredients to reflect Chinese, Thai or Japanese influences.

The central ingredient of panang (a local trout), might now be tuna, lobster or abalone. The Kahala celebration will use salmon, a common modern substitute.

Other ingredients are added for their symbolism, or just to make the salad taste better.