My Grandmother's Chinese Kitchen by Eileen Lo

Author:Eileen Lo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US

Fish Alive

(YUE SAHN)

This was a dish of great importance, made from a grass carp pulled fresh from one of Ah Paw’s ponds, a dish which, although she could not eat in the New Year because of her vegetarian beliefs, she ordered prepared for her family. Most people these days associate raw fish dishes with the Japanese table, but in China this was a tradition of centuries in which the fish had to be killed just minutes before serving. Yue Sahn was reserved for this second day of the New Year, as part of a family dinner before a wedding, a must for a sixtieth birthday celebration, traditionally a milestone in one’s longevity, or for any family gathering of great import.

The fish would be brought to my grandmother’s kitchen by Ah Guk and Sau Lin, her “Chrysanthemum” and “Beautiful Lotus” servants. It was my job to stun it with a blow to its head, remove its scales, slit its body, cleanse its insides and remove its gills. Ah Guk and Sau Lin would carefully slice it and serve it at once.

Because Ah Paw believed this raw fish was only for adults and too strong to be digested by a small child such as myself, I was not permitted to eat it. I could help prepare it, but I was forbidden to eat it. In fact, it was not until I was sixteen years old and living in Hong Kong that I actually ate Yeu Sahn. Instead I, and other youngsters in the family, would be given bowls of chicken congee.

1 5-pound grass carp, whole, live

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