Nordic seafood enthusiasts seek to revive raw fish festival
It's not a well known tradition but the Norwegian Seafood Export Council is eager to revive the Yu Sheng festival. Meaning raw fish in Cantonese, it apparently began some 1,000 years ago when two village brothers had no fire to cook their fish for dinner and ate it sashimi style. The two then went on to great success, so others followed suit. Apparently in Singapore and Malaysia, the festival is still quite common.
Obviously salmon wasn't on the menu then, but the Nordic salmon industry is encouraging Chinese chefs to give it a try. Six Chinese hotel restaurants are taking up the challenge and will be creating unique dishes using the farmed fish, which has no tradition in Chinese cuisine.
All the chefs gathered at the Langham Place Hotel last week to participate in another little known luck-bringing ritual called lo hei, tossing the raw fish like salad in a bowl (pictured, with the council's Ashild Nakken).
'I started working with the salmon council in 2000. At the beginning I tried to put salmon in Chinese cooking and made some dishes but customers weren't very receptive,' recalled Leung Fai-hung of the InterContinental Grand Stanford's Hoi King Heen. 'However, since 2003, I have noticed a slow change in people's perception and then salmon's use became more versatile. I still always try to retain the original fresh taste. As a chef, I think this is a good change in food culture.'
The other restaurants going pink are the Luk Kwok Hotel's Canton Room, Langham Place Hotel's Ming Court, Regal Riverside's Regal Seafood Restaurant, Langham Hotel's T'ang Court and Hotel Nikko's Toh Lee. Their salmon dishes will be served from January 26 for the Lunar New Year.
