Yu sang in this house is an epic. Not for us the mainstream thing - tossing raw fish and everything else all at once, drowning it in a dribble of New Year cliches, getting it over with in under five minutes - no, that is not for us.
Ours is Pearl River, once-upon-a-time-in-Canton, this-is-how-my-great-grandmother-did-it yu sang. The fish does not appear until Act Two. Act One is just lime juice and sugar, which is mixed on a dish until the sugar melts. The fish is tossed in the juice in Act Two, for the fish - which was sliced by hand by my mother and laid out by me on paper for drying purposes - to soak up the sweetness and sourness. Act Three: Oil is added. Stir, stir, stir. Act Four: Salt, pepper and a dash of alcohol are added. Stir, stir, stir. Acts Five to N: Sesame, peanut, pickled ginger, pickled onion, parsley, chilli, radish, carrot, et cetera are added one after another. The idea is to start with the small things that will stick to the fish. After 30 minutes of stirring - we are too out of breath from the chopstick action to mouth many cliches - dinner is served.
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