Confinement Food

Boar kidney (豬腰) stir fried with gingers and sesame oil is one of the confinement food for those under confinement treatment.

If one did not clean properly on those kidneys, that kind of urinate smell is horrible. I know whenever my mom did this for me, she will normally soak these kidneys into the salt water for a night and cut off its nerves and again use salt water wash it again and again.

Cut gingers into tiny slim slices, and mom says it has to be “old” ginger. Elderly said those gingers could eliminate whatever cold air in our body after labour, some said this dish could actually warm the stomach, and the womb as well.

Heat up sesame oil, and stir fry gingers till it fragrant. Add those kidneys into the wok and stir fry again, add dark soya sauce, salt to taste and not to forget half bowl of a normal rice bowl of brandy or XO (liquor). Reason for that is to have a good blood circulation.

If one likes ginger a lot, could add as much as possible. But many doctors would not encourage especially for those practise breast feed.
Second dish that mom did for me was long beans stir fry with black fungus and lean meat.

Whatever mommy did for me was basically will add a bit of liquor, she kept telling that could have better blood circulation.

Confinement Supper

Every confinement woman will have to go thru a certain confinement food, apart from restricted to take bath, hair wash, and so on. At night they are encouraged to take herbal soup as supper.

I was basically almost every 2 days, mom will double boil those herbal soup for me, either is Chinese Angelica Sinensis Root (Dong Quai/當歸) or other herbs like Eu Yan Sang’s Bak Foong Pills (白鳳丸) and, Codonopsis pilosula (Dang Shen/黨蔘), Wolfberry 枸杞.

Each of these Chinese Herbs has its ways of functions to reinforce our weakness in our body. For example, Dang Shen is to nourish the stomach and promote the flow of Qi. Dong Quai is to eliminate blood stagnation in women’s uterus or womb and it’s also balancing a woman’s hormone system too.

When I under went such treatment, the only thing that really made you so moody apart from the loss was the restrictions. Restricted from taking bath, hair wash, bare foot, must lie on the bed all the time, not allow to drink room temperature water, it has to be warm water, sweating like nobody’s business, etc.

But according to many elderly, it is a good sign if your body is sweating even though you’re stagnant. That shows that, the herbs are nourishing the body, especially the womb.

Confinement Food

Since 21 March, I’ve been under going the normal confinement treatment, and was advised to adhere for about 40 days. Since that day, I wasn’t in the mood to take pictures nor blog about what I was eating and so on. I was just blogging on my other blog to voice out my thoughts and was hoping that could help me to reduce the pain in me.

Today is my first time take an initiative to take a picture of this dish. Mom cooks this Turmeric Chicken (黄姜炒雞Ayam Kunyit) for me for dinner. She told me that many confinement food will have this Turmeric, cuz, it has its nutritious to heal a woman’s uterus or womb after labour.

Many Chinese women will have this and drink it raw without cooking it.

Perhaps this is mid-wives’ tale, that turmeric could heal a woman’s uterus after labour and perhaps many that had proven it.

Right now, am trying not to think much about anything but to build back my body strength and re-create the magic.