Lo Hei

Rejoice hungry night owls! There is now a place for you to hang out and eat especially this Chinese New Year season. Chinatown Food Street is the place for you to go.

Chinatown Food Street is bustling with feverish energy with bright festive decorations for Chinese New Year. They have fun activities like lighting of sparklers and games for the whole family Their dining concept are street hawker stalls for wide variety for people to choose from. There area total of 24 hawker stalls offering dishes priced between $2.50 to $10.00 a dish. The yu sheng or the traditional lo hei cost $28 for small and $38 for large.

Several fellow bloggers and I braved the busy streets of Chinatown last Saturday to celebrate Chinese New Year a bit earlier. We gathered in Chinatown Food Street for a night of prosperity toss, late night food-bingeing and games.

I am happy to meet Frannywanny in the event. I have been following her food & travel blog. I was nice to finally meet her.

It was great that I got a table with other bloggers I met in previous events that I have attended. It was nice to hang out with all of them again.

Our night started with a Lo Hei (Prosperity Toss). This is a unique Chinese New Year tradition whereby a group of people or a family would gather round this big plate of shredded vegetables, sauces & strips of raw fish. They will mix up all the ingredients and toss up the ingredients in the air with chopsticks while shouting auspicious wishes for the New Year. This is to attract and increase abundance and prosperity for the New Year.

We were given several dishes from different stalls to share in our table. We were getting full already and we didn’t know we will be eating some more as the night progress. Opps!

We had a game where we were given $20 dollars voucher for each blogger to buy in the different 24 hawker stalls in Chinatown Food Street and the fastest table that will upload 10 different dishes in instagram with hashtag #ChinatownFoodStreet will win.

These are the stalls we have to choose from:

1,3 Boon Tat Street BBQ Seafood (Singapore)

2 Thim Kee Curry Chicken Noodle (Teochew)

4 Bugis Street Famous Hainanese Chicken Rice (Hainanese)

5 Katong Keah Kee Fried Oysters (Teochew)

6 Balestier Abalone Noodle (Singapore)

7 Tiong Bahru Meng Kee Roast Duck (Cantonese)

8 Food Street Fried Kway Teow Mee (Teochew)

9 Chinatown Cheng Kee Hookien Mee (Hokkien)

10 Geylang Lor 9 Fried Frog Porridge (Singapore)

11 Chomp Chomp Goodluck BBQ Chicken Wings (Singapore)

12 Odeon Beef Noodles (Hainanese)

13 Chong Chong Ngoh Hiang Prawn Fritter (Teochew)

14 Sin Ming Road Rong Cheng bak Kut Teh (Teochew)

15 Joo Chiat Ang Moh Noodle House (Cantonese)

16 Chinatown Ah Hock Steamed Fish Head (Singapore)

17 Serangoon Raju Indian Cuisine (Indian)

18 Chinatown Crab Master (Singapore)

19 Newton Circus Ahmad Ibrahim Satay (Malay)

20 Maxwell Road Soon Soon Popiah, Laksa (Singapore)

K1 Chinatown Food Street Hot/Cold Beverage, Desserts (Singapore)

K2 Chinatown Food Street Hot/Cold Beverage, Fresh Fruit Juices (Singapore)

21 Chinatown Enak Fritters (Singapore)

I contributed two dishes for the 10 dishes we needed to upload.

I got a Popiah from Maxwell Road Soon Soon Popiah.

I have to ask the lady making the popiah to hurry, hehe…

I got the KangKong at Boon Tat Street BBQ Seafood.

Look at the spread of food we ordered and we just couldn’t resist to eat more.

And guess what? Our table won! Yehey!

Credits: Lunarrive

We got two ang baos for the night!

Credits: Lunarrive

I am happy to announce that for this February, Chinatown Food Street is extending their operating hours until 2:00AM. The extension of hours will only be until 18 February. Please note that Chinatown Food Street will be closed on 19 February and will resume operations on 20 February with its original operating hours of 11 AM to 11 PM.

Chinatown Food Street can be found at Smith Street in Chinatown. If you are coming from Chinatown MRT, take Exit A, turn to the right at the first street aisle and two blocks, you are there.

You are wondering what is inside one of the ang baos? Because we are the winner of the game, we, each got two tickets to the Trick Eye Museum! Yippee!

Here is another good news for those interested in going to the Trick Eye Museum. From 13 February to 3 March, if you spend $10 in single receipt at Chinatown Food Street, you can get a 20% off discount voucher Trick Eye Museum admission tickets. The voucher is valid until 31 March 2015 only.

So what are you waiting for? Head down to Chinatown Food Street. See you there soon.

Thank you Rachel & Chinatown Food Street for inviting and Charmaine & Peishan for hosting

During Chinese New Year season, Singaporean has this unique tradition that I haven’t encountered or witnessed in any of the traditional Chinese families in the Philippines called the Lo Hei or the Prosperity Toss. Lo Hei was popularised by Singaporeans around the 1960s-1970s. A few countries finally catches up with this tradition. It is the tradition whereby a group of people or a family would gather round this big plate of shredded vegetables, sauces & strips of raw fish. They will mix up all the ingredients and toss up the ingredients in the air with chopsticks while shouting auspicious wishes for the New Year. This is to attract and increase abundance and prosperity for the New Year.

We did our own Lo Hei in our clinic a few days ago. Lo Hei is preferable done around the 7th day of Chinese New Year (Chinese New Year is celebrated from 1st to 15th Day) though it can also be done anytime within the Chinese New Year.

Step 1

Look at this pretty shredded vegetables.

Step 2

Adding sesame seeds which signifies prosperity for business, peanut crumbs which means having a household filled with gold & silver, a dash of pepper to attract more money and plum sauce for a sweeter life.

Step 3

Add the raw fish. We used salmon. Fish usually the symbol of abundance. More fish, more abundance. However, this poor pregnant lady is unable to eat the raw fish. Boo Hoo!

Step 4

Toss and toss up in the air. The higher the toss, the better because it will signifies the height of growth of your fortunes for the year ahead.

Step 5

Shout auspicious wishes for New Year. “More money!” “Success in work”. “Love and Happiness in Marriage”. ” Healthy Baby” and many more.…

More Abundance! More Prosperity! All the best for everyone for the Year of the Green Wooden Horse!

CHINATOWN FOOD STREET

LO HEI – PROSPERITY TOSS, UNIQUELY SINGAPOREAN