It's a toss-up: Where should you eat yu sheng this year?

Walk past any moderately popular Chinese restaurant on the seventh day of the Chinese New Year and you'll see families crowded around a dinner table, tossing vegetables high into the air. Usually, they're armed with just a pair of large chopsticks and a single loud voice, beseeching good fortune and bigger pay packets. 

The tossing of "yu sheng" (鱼生) -- a raw fish salad also known as 'yee sang' or 'yuu sahng' -- is a common practice among the Chinese, symbolizing abundance, prosperity and vigor, especially in Singapore. The ritual is also sometimes referred to as 'lo hei', which means to 'toss up luck', or 'toss and rise'. In other words, the higher you chuck your food, the more luck and good fortune will rain down on you in the coming year. 

While some believe this practice started in Chaozhou (Teochew province) as far back as the Southern Song Dynasty, the modern-day yu sheng was created during Chinese New Year in 1964 by four apprentice chefs, Sin Leong, Lau Yeak Pui, Hooi Kok Wai and the late Tham Mui Kai. They went on to become the 'Four Heavenly Chefs' of Singapore and eventually each opened his own restaurant. 

The auspicious salad they created was well thought out, containing raw fish (for excess throughout the new year), pomelo (for luck and auspicious value), pepper (to attract money and valuables), oil (to represent money flowing in from all directions), shredded carrots (blessings of good luck), shredded green radish (eternal youth), shredded white radish (prosperity in business and promotion at work), peanut crumbs (a household filled with gold and silver), sesame seeds (a flourishing business) and deep-fried flour crisps (to symbolize gold). 

Today, yu sheng has become an iconic food, and is served at the best restaurants and hotels as well as the most commonplace hawker centers. However, not every salad remains traditional. These days, restaurant chefs are tossing it up differently, with the help of special ingredients.

We sifted through a number of the newer incarnations here in Singapore to find the top two yu sheng dishes. 

Jade Restaurant

The Fullerton Hotel Singapore
1 Fullerton Square, Singapore
tel +65 68778188

The big draw: Jade's Gold Rush yu sheng comes with a choice of either raw salmon or tuna. They've added mounds of champagne jelly, which contains real gold flakes in it, to symbolize wealth. It's also dressed with olive oil and an apple plum sauce to keep the salad nicely balanced between sweet and sour. Available for dine-in or takeaway from now till February 28, the salad is priced from S$48 (excluding taxes) for a small portion.

Min Jiang at One North

5 Rochester Park, Singapore
tel +65 6774 0122

The big draw: This light and tasty hamachi (yellowtail fish) yu sheng also contains flying fish roe, wasabi ebiko (prawn roe), french chives, mesclun greens, crunchy sweet potato, yam strips and pine nuts. It's dressed with a tangy secret sweet sauce and lime juice -- a combination you'll never tire of. It's only available for dine-in but for a dish that contains hamachi, its S$88 price tag is very reasonable. You can also find the hamachi yu sheng at the other Min Jiang branch in Goodwood Park Hotel Singapore.