Food for new mothers

Another dish that is kept bubbling on the stove is stewed pig trotters in sweet vinegar.

This is a time consuming dish using plenty of whole old ginger, roasted for best effect, and a special vinegar brew that is tart and sweet. Lots of pig trotters are carefully cleaned and blanched and added to the simmering ginger-flavored vinegar broth.

Sometimes, hard boiled eggs are added.

In some southern regions, bowls of vinegared pig trotters, portions of savory glutinous rice and red-dyed hard boiled eggs would be distributed to relatives to announce the arrival of the baby.

To vary the diet, some mothers-in-law will prepare a small virgin chicken and stuff it into a thoroughly cleansed pig stomach. The whole thing is then simmered in a soup flavored with white peppercorns. The end result is a very tender chicken, flavorful tripe and a nice hot soup to warm the stomach.

Steamed milk custards with egg white, sweet egg custards, ginger-flavored junkets are also desserts to help the new mother get more calcium. But, the mother in confinement is strictly discouraged from eating chilled or frozen food.

By the same token, they are also discouraged from taking cold showers and from washing their hair. However, I think this is a throwback to rural times when a bath involved drawing water from the well.