In Singapore, Lunar New Year Is a Multicultural Feast
The New York Times
The ethnic diversity of the island nation shines through food during the two-week festivities.
For about two decades, Shila Das has brought her chicken curry and nasi biryani to her best friend, Wendy Chua, for their Lunar New Year celebrations together in their native Singapore. They start the day with those dishes, then have hot pot.
The women, both 51, began spending the holiday together as teenagers, watching lion dance troupes perform in the wide atrium of Ms. Chua’s grandfather’s house. Nearly three decades ago, the ethnically Chinese Chua family tasked Ms. Das, who is Indian and Vietnamese, with presiding over its household’s New Year lo hei ceremony, a Singaporean tradition centered on yu sheng, one of the country’s most popular New Year dishes. Ms. Das led the family in tossing the ingredients, flinging raw fish, crackers, slivered carrots and pickled ginger into the air while shouting auspicious phrases in Chinese. (Lo hei means “tossing up good fortune” in Cantonese.)
“Just imagine. In this Chinese house, there’s this Indian girl that stands on the stool and leads the lo hei every year,” Ms. Das said.
