SINGAPORE, Jan 23 — With Chinese New Year (CNY) fast approaching, shops and restaurants have been rolling out hordes of dragon-themed decorations and menus to welcome the Year of the Dragon.
For now, it looks like Neo Garden Catering may have everyone beat, with its yee sang (raw fish salad, also known as yusheng) platter that measures a whopping 1,088m.
Featured in its CNY menu launched earlier this month are yee sang platters that are priced from S$48.80 (RM171.83), which serves six to eight people, to a S$438 one that serves 30 to 35 people.
Other more expensive yee sang platters are also available, such as an 8m-long “Fortune Dragon Yusheng (yee sang)” costing S$3,888 and a 78m-long “Longevity Dragon Yusheng” at S$58,888.
The menu offering that caught the attention of some online users, though, was the 1,088m-long “Celestial Dragon Yusheng” that costs S$1,088,888 (RM3.8 million). After including Goods and Services Tax (GST), the cost of the yee sang platter amounts to US$1,186,887.90.
In its main promotional photo for the platter, yee sang ingredients are arranged in the shape of a large orange dragon that covers several tables. The dragon’s body appears to be made up of mainly vegetables such as shredded carrot and white radish, while other key ingredients such as sauces, crushed peanut and salmon are placed in small containers lining the edges of the tables.
Some people on TikTok and online forum Reddit were baffled, wondering why anyone would order such a dish or why the catering company would even offer it.
The costly yee sang was brought to public attention when TikTok user “corlisse.l” posted a photo carousel last Wednesday (January 17) featuring photos of a physical Neo Garden menu for CNY 2024.
“Wanted to order yusheng thinking it wouldn’t cost more than S$50,” the TikToker wrote in the photos, with one showing the cheapest S$3,888 yee sang.
Displaying more prices, she continued: “Who is the target audience for (this) and why do we need a 288m-long yusheng?”
The carousel ended off with the Celestial Dragon Yusheng and a tongue-in-cheek caption: “1km worth of yusheng for the entire Singapore population, only at S$1.1 million.”
A day later, the menu popped up on Reddit as well in a post by user “random_avocado”, who asked: “1km-long yusheng, anyone?
“Saw it on Neo Garden’s CNY catalogue. Why would anyone want that?”
As of yesterday afternoon, the TikTok post has garnered 1.3 million views and 420 comments, while the Reddit post has 390 upvotes and 60 comments.
1km-long Yusheng, anyone?
People had similar reactions in the comments of both posts, with one TikTok user writing: “For real, I actually want to see a 1km-long yee sang. Do they even know how long 1km is?”
The 1km yee sang also inspired a series of jokes, with one top comment on TikTok reading: “By the time the 1km yusheng is laid out, ingredients chao sng already, LOL.” This refers to the food having gone bad.
Others declared that for S$1.1 million, “the dragon better fly down from the sky and breathe fire for one minute” or “Yuhuang Dadi (the Jade Emperor) better come down eat with me”.
Some had more practical ideas, such as one Reddit user who wrote: “Let me just trade in 488m of yusheng for a HDB flat.”
Another TikTok user mused: “If one million citizens fork (out) a dollar (each), we can create a yusheng world record for Singapore.”
Interestingly, Singapore already holds the world record for the longest yee sang. In the Singapore Book of Records, Prudential Singapore set the latest record in February 2018 with a 343m-long yee sang, which was also dragon-shaped.
On its website, the entry states: “Caterer Orange Clove took eight hours to assemble the colourful vegetable layout at Prudential’s corporate office in Marina One, using 2,880kg of vegetables and 29kg of fish.”
Some people suggested that Neo Garden’s 1km yee sang could be an option for “rich companies’ CNY events”, while the more cynical saw it as a marketing ploy.
“You fell for the trap of giving (Neo Garden) free publicity for something they never intended to sell,” one user wrote on Reddit.
A TikTok user said: “Someone order the 1km yusheng and make their marketing team regret it.”
Others, however, took to the comments under the first TikTok post by “corlisse.l” just to criticise her for expecting to pay only S$50 for the extravagant platter.
A top comment referring to Neo Garden’s promotional photo read: “That’s at least worth more than S$500... Why would you think it’s S$50?”
These users pointed out that apart from ingredients, the high prices also include labour costs such as the time needed to prepare and set up the platter. One even claimed that the dragon’s body may be “covered by salmon” instead of “cheap vegetables” as most people assumed.
However, TikTok and Reddit users said that this would unlikely be the case.
“My company did this before,” one wrote on Reddit. “I don’t know how long it was, but it (was) basically inedible... 90 per cent of the body of the dragon is made of basically the cheapest vegetables (I think it’s white radish).”
TODAY has reached out to Neo Garden Catering for comment. — TODAY
