A fast food chain giving away underwear is weird but it ain’t the craziest news to emerge from Singapore of late. Chinese New Year is a time of many things, chief among them is having a dish called yusheng. If you are around Southeast Asia, you can find yusheng at restaurants and even supermarkets that suit a variety of budgets.
In Singapore, you can buy a ready-made yusheng from the Japanese supermarket chain Don Don Donki starting at 22 Singapore dollars (about 16 USD). But if you are Scrooge McDuck rich and want to treat 3,000 people to this festive dish, Singapore buffet specialist/caterer Neo Garden has just the right yusheng for you.
Folks, meet the Majestic Longevity Dragon Yusheng, a yusheng dish that will allow 3,000 people to toss yusheng together – shoulder to shoulder – for a grand sum of S$1,088,888 plus tax (around US$812,000). The tax alone is 98,000 Singapore dollars (US$73,000+), which is more than the price of a typical car stateside. Bonkers.
But the price is not the craziest. The length is equally insane. The Majestic Longevity Dragon Yusheng will be 1,088 meters long (that’s 1.088 km or 0.68 miles, or 3,570 feet), making it the longest dragon yusheng. And right. It will be in the likeness of a dragon. But of course. It is the Year of the Dragon after all.
Neo Garden said the super long and super expensive yusheng will be prepared by no less than 100 skilled staff, requiring half a day to assemble the crisp vegetables and salmon slices. If after reading all this, you still cannot fathom why a kilometer-long Chinese New Year dish is such a big deal, well, that is because you have no idea what the dish is about.
So for the benefit of those who don’t know, Yusheng is literally Chinese for raw fish, which in the modern context usually is salmon slices. But it is not just raw fish; it has a bunch of ingredients each having symbolic meaning like longevity, prosperity, and whatnot.
Anyhoo, it is not a proper dish per se because, these ingredients will be laid out ceremoniously, and eventually, wait for it… toss up using chopsticks by every participant. The act of tossing the ingredients is a ritual dubbed “lo hei” (basically means to rise). In the process, the ingredients get mixed and after that, participants will proceed to consume the mixed yusheng. Anyhoo, if you don’t know, now you know.
If a million dollar/one kilometer long is overkill for your needs, Neo Garden also offers Golden Harvest Dragon Boat Yusheng which is between the length of 6 to 10 meters (20-33 feet). However, it is not clear how much that costs and how many people can it serve.
Images: Neo Garden.
via CNA Lifestyle.
