Singapore — A TikTok video from a British-Italian woman went viral after she showed off her yusheng “salad”, saying it came with “sausage” and croutons.
Ms Larabella Myers posted a video of herself on Feb 16 enjoying the dish she calls a salad, and took the ribbing from netizens in stride, even those who told her to boycott wherever she bought her bak kwa.
@larabellamyers I thought £10 salads in London were expensive… #sgtiktok #tiktiksg #singapore #singlish #chinesenewyear #cny #yearofthetiger
But her appreciation of this Chinese New Year dish got a rise out of her outraged Singaporean boyfriend, who asked her if she just called the bak kwa in the yusheng “sausage.”
“I have all my nutrients here, with some radishes, some carrots, some croutons, some sausage—“
She then panned to her “angry Singaporean” boyfriend at the sink. “DID YOU JUST CALL IT SAUSAGE?!?!” Which made Ms Myers laugh.
To the uninitiated, yusheng is a mixture of raw fish, shredded or pickled carrots, radish, cucumber, candied citrus peel or melon, fresh pomelo, chopped peanuts, deepfried wonton skin, five-spice powder, plum sauce, hoisin sauce, and oil tossed together and served cold.
It’s commonly served during Lunar New Year festivities in Singaporean and Malaysian households.
But is it a salad?
Loosely speaking, maybe. It has been called “prosperity salad,” perhaps for Westerners to grasp the concept of the dish.
In Chinese, yusheng – written as 魚生 in characters – is a homophone for 余升, which roughly translates as “increase in abundance”. So, eating yusheng supposedly invites an “abundance of prosperity and good health to one’s home, workplace and community for the upcoming year,” according to Silver Kris magazine.
But on the list of usual ingredients, neither “sausage” nor “croutons” appears, which explains why some netizens reacted so adversely to Ms Myers’ video.
But a few commenters seemed to reconcile to the idea that yu sheng may just be a salad.
Several took issue with the TikToker eating, on her own, a dish that is always meant to be shared with others.
And others put their foot down on her inclusion of bak kwa in the dish.
Apparently delighted with the attention that her “salad and sausage” post had garnered, Ms Myers posted another TikTok video on Thursday.
@larabellamyers @asiaone posted an article about my viral video 🤯 #sgtiktok #tiktiksg #singapore #singlish
/TISG