Meal 4 Mom - The Pink Ladies Get It Right

California just gets it right when it comes to yuezi meals.  

Today I read about Meal 4 Mom which is another yuezi service meal available for Cali moms.  They deliver "special confinement meals" for new moms in the San Gabriel Valley and even had a tasting most recently in Temple City.  As an ex-Cali and now New Yorker, I am just envious on behalf of all Manhattan / NY moms who do not have access to services like this in NYC.  Isn't this just crazy when you think about it?  NYC is where you can get anything you can imagine delivered to your door and we don't even have something as basic as this for new moms.  

Pink Ladies of Meal 4 Mom, can you please expand to the East Coast?  That herbal fish soup sounds dee-lish!

Tags: Yuezi, yuezi delivery meal service, Cali, confinement meals, Pasadena Star News, Zen Vuong

Chinese nesting superstition #44

You know it's super unlucky if it's Chinese nesting superstition #44.

So here it is - my mama told me that when you're pregnant, it's considered taboo to nail anything into the wall.  Not even a pushpin.

I don't know the entire context but it has something to do with puncturing a hole and that's not good with all the liquids in your belly!

Yuezi beverage

Ingredients:

Large piece of ginger

20 goji berries

3 pinches of dried longan meat

5 red dates or jujubes

5 cups of water

Boil everything for 10-12 minutes!

My mom brought this to the hospital the first day after my daughter was born.  It has ginger to regain strength, longan for a bit of sweetness and dates to cleanse the blood.

On my 4th week, my mom added hong sen (red ginseng) to my drink for vitality.  Apparently, she saved the red ginseng from her yuezi and by the time I had it, it was over 30 years old!!!

As a gift from my 3rd aunt in HK, my daughter was given hong sen as a baby gift.  I think it's still the sweetest and most thoughtful gift to be sitting in my freezer for the next couple of decades.

I also drink this in the wintertime in NYC to keep warm.

Tags - yuezi recipes, yuezi beverage, goji berry drink, ginger drink, winter drink, hong sen, red ginseng

The chain of food and love

The emotional feelings generated by the caretaking aspects of yuezi truly strengthened the circle of love and bonding between my mother, myself and my baby.  During yuezi, my food intake schedule during the daytime was based off of my daughter's feedings.  For example, if I was going to breastfeed at 6pm, I had a light dinner or soup at 5pm so that when my daughter was going to eat, I was prepared for it. 

When a new mom is readily prepared and nourished for nursing, it makes postpartum life that much easier and that's one of the multitude of benefits associated with yuezi.  I felt an incredible sense of gratitude to have my mom prepare 5 nutritious meals a day so that I could be the best possible mom to nurture and feed my baby.  Different cultures have unique ways of taking care of new moms but there's nothing in the world that beats the depth of maternal love until you drink your mother's soup to nurse your baby.

Tags: yuezi benefits, postpartum emotions, maternal love, postpartum food intake

    

POST PREGNANCY TIP #5 - NO SUGAR FOR SIX MONTHS

Giving up on cookies, cupcakes and everything else one hedonistically enjoys during pregnancy was no easy task my friends.  When my mom told me no white sugar for six months, it didn't really sink in until I was back at work 10 weeks later. 

During my yuezi month and for six months after I had my baby, I discovered major willpower issues in regard to sugar.  Who knew that the eating habits formed during pregnancy were so strong and impossible to curb afterwards??? 

At my mother's suggestion, I had black sesame drinks to satiate my desire for sweets.  It is easy to make and fast.  To be completely honest, there were a couple dark chocolate interventions when the black sesame beverage just didn’t cut it but overall, I found this beverage to be a particularly helpful and healthy alternative for afternoon sugar cravings at work.

Black sesame drinks not only hit the sweet spot but they are the gentle equivalent of prunes and apricots in Chinese cuisine.  It’s one of the best things you can drink the first week post birth as a gentle postpartum laxative.  You can’t overdo it and who knows exactly how many dried apricots and prunes will do the trick.

Stock up on this in your last weeks of pregnancy!  Black sesame drinks can be found at most Chinese supermarkets.

Tags: black sesame, post pregnancy tip, gentle postpartum laxative

Sometimes, it's better to google things after the fact

Sometimes it’s better to google things after the fact

To look at the meat, you’d think a bomb went off in the chicken coop. The skin is black and blue. Despite any method of cooking the meat is tough and the little creature is bony. It’s a staple of yuezi and it tastes lean and well, like chicken.

It’s just as well that I didn’t google image silkies until my 30 days were up. As you can see, silkies are fluffy and cute, sort of the bichon frise of the poultry set.

At least thrice a week, my mom made silkie chicken soup. Sometimes it was with sesame oil, sometimes with black mushrooms and black mu-er.

It’s believed to give the mom energy after birth and even helpful in reducing melatonin for your linea negra to go away. Didn’t notice it too much on my own linea negra but the hyperpigmentation of this chicken makes you wonder what it could do to your own pigments.

I recently read that silkies are starting to show up in fashionable nyc restos. They are the most expensive birds at the Chinese super market because all Chinese people know about their healing powers. I can only imagine how outrageously expensive they can get on a nicer tablecloth.

TAG: BLACK CHICKEN, SILKIE CHICKEN, CHICKEN SOUP YUEZI,

Learning how to be a Chinese mom

Learning how to be a Chinese mom

When you’re second generation, it’s hard to keep the traditions and customs your mom naturally executed.  Modern motherhood with all the technological advances we have available (think of all the baby gear available like fancy bottles, pumping machines, etc) tends to preoccupy our time, energy and attention.

Here are some ideas to for preserving Chinese culture in your home.

• Do the month aka zuo yuezi - Learn how to be a mom the Chinese way, from your family with love, support and nutritious food.

• Celebrate 100th day birthday for your baby

• Celebrate 1st birthday and play the plate game 

• Celebrate Chinese New Year

• Speak, read and listen to Chinese at home 

• Hire a Chinese nanny to help you foster Chinese culture in your home.  I went a step beyond and matched my daughter's Chinese astrological sign to my nanny's.  Both are born in the year of the tiger!