Hold your horses: ‘Rapping’ 65-year-old turns heads at Toa Payoh restaurant’s yusheng service

SINGAPORE – Madam Alice Chong does not horse around when it comes to preparing yusheng for diners at the Toa Payoh restaurant she works at.

The 65-year-old’s special ingredient? An upbeat, rap-like cadence as she delivers the auspicious phrases that traditionally accompany the Chinese salad dish.

This Chinese New Year, the assistant manager at Kelly Jie Seafood has also incorporated horse-themed sayings in celebration of the Year of the Fire Horse.

These include ma shang ru yuan – which means to have one’s wishes fulfilled immediately – and yi ma dang xian – which describes being a pioneer. The Chinese character for horse, ma, is often used in phrases to convey immediacy or quickness.

A video of Madam Chong’s energetic performances that is making the rounds on social media has charmed netizens.

The 1min 39sec clip, which was posted on the Singapore Foodie Facebook page on Feb 5, has garnered more than 580,000 views and at least 4,100 likes.

Several Facebook users have praised her performance, including user Clara Turner, who said: “Please give her a great tip! What energy!”

Speaking to The Straits Times on Feb 6, Madam Chong said she feels elated to be able to bring the festive joy and spirit to diners, even though she does not eat yusheng in her own home.

“I didn’t even have to show the video to my children and grandchildren. They saw it themselves and told me, ‘Mummy, we are so proud of you’,” she said in Mandarin.

Chinese idioms are typically four characters long, but staff at the restaurant have taken to reciting 10 lines of seven-character phrases during yusheng presentations.

“We started using seven characters in our yusheng greetings in 2024 because we felt that using four characters was not fashionable anymore,” said Madam Chong, who has worked at the restaurant for eight years.

While all of the restaurant’s full-time employees know the “rap”, the horse-themed phrases are her own special inclusions at the start and end of each performance, she said.

At times, diners who see her performing the “rap” for others would make a request for her to do the same for them, she said, adding that these greetings change each year, depending on the Chinese zodiac.

After the video went viral, some people even turned up on Feb 6 to see her in action at the restaurant, which was formerly known as TPY Mellben Seafood.

Kelly Jie Seafood operations director Rachel Lim Hui Teng said that many diners with existing reservations have since asked if there would be a “yusheng rap” on the day of their visit, though she is unsure if it is due to the video going viral.

“The hype (around the video) is an external factor that gets diners to come to the restaurant,” said Ms Lim, 34.

“No matter how fun the rap is, people won’t come back for the second and third time just for it. The food itself has to be good.”

Added Madam Chong, tongue-in-cheek: “Diners who leave a positive Google review would make me the happiest.”