What You'll Do
Step into Audrey Wong’s kitchen for an intimate evening that celebrates the quiet strength and care behind traditional Cantonese confinement food. As part of My First Journey, this dinner invites you to explore how healing begins not just with rest, but with food—carefully prepared to nourish the body and uplift the spirit after childbirth.
Audrey’s menu draws from cherished family recipes, featuring comforting dishes like sesame oil chicken, steamed fish with ginger, a deeply nourishing soup, and stir-fried vegetables. Each dish is simple yet powerful, rooted in ingredients known for their warming and restorative qualities. These are the flavours that many Cantonese mothers and grandmothers turn to—meals that speak of recovery, resilience, and love.
This gathering isn’t just about the food on the table—it’s about the memories, traditions, and quiet rituals that surround it. Whether you're reconnecting with familiar tastes or discovering them for the first time, Audrey’s dinner offers a heartfelt reflection on how something as humble as a home-cooked meal can help us begin again.
About What’s For My Dinner
Food is more than just sustenance; it carries history, culture, and care. Nowhere is this more evident than in confinement food—a deeply rooted and intimate tradition designed to nourish new mothers during one of the most vulnerable and transformative periods of their lives. For this special edition of What’s for My Dinner, we invite you to step into the world of postpartum nourishment, where food becomes a form of healing, and every meal tells a story of maternal resilience, ancestral knowledge, and familial devotion.
Across cultures, confinement food is both a practical and symbolic gesture of love. These meals are crafted not only to help mothers recover physically after childbirth, but also to offer emotional comfort, reestablish strength, and provide warmth during a time of rest, bonding, and redefinition of self. What makes confinement food so powerful is its blend of nutritional science and inherited wisdom—recipes passed from grandmothers to mothers, from one generation to the next.
Though ingredients and techniques differ, the intention behind confinement meals is remarkably similar across cultures. In Chinese traditions, for example, dishes often feature warming ingredients like ginger, sesame oil, and rice wine, believed to dispel “wind” from the body and replenish qi (energy). In Malay and Indonesian households, herbal tonics and jamu—a mix of turmeric, ginger, and tamarind—are consumed to restore balance and vitality. Indian confinement meals often include ghee-rich lentils, warming spices, and iron- and calcium-rich vegetables to support lactation and boost strength. In Western traditions, too, bone broths, soft proteins, and hydrating fruits and vegetables play a role in postpartum care.
What binds these traditions together is an underlying belief: that a mother’s well-being is the foundation for a child’s early life. Confinement meals reflect this value by placing care at the centre—care in preparation, in intention, and in nourishment. They are not quick fixes or convenience meals, but slow, considered acts of love that honour both the physical demands and emotional journey of motherhood.
In this dinner, we invite you to experience this cross-cultural tapestry of postpartum care. Through warm broths, restorative dishes, and thoughtfully prepared sides, you’ll taste more than just food—you’ll taste heritage, healing, and the universal understanding that to nourish a mother is to nurture a family.
About The Host
Audrey Wong grew up in a kampong near Bishan and has called Ang Mo Kio home for most of her life. Her love for food began in her childhood kitchen, where she often watched her Cantonese mother cook nourishing, soulful meals for the family. That early exposure sparked a lifelong appreciation for comforting dishes—especially soups, which remain her favourite.
With over 30 years of experience in the F&B industry, Audrey has worn many hats, from working on the ground to leading sales at major food fairs at Singapore Expo. Beyond the kitchen, Audrey is a passionate advocate for active ageing. She’s used to cycle often—once even riding all the way to Kukup, Malaysia!—and recently picked up pickleball. She also enjoys music and crafts, always finding new ways to stay engaged, creative, and connected with her community.
For Audrey, food is more than a profession—it’s a way of life, rooted in heritage, joy, and the simple act of bringing people together.
Who should come?
- Everyone is welcome to participate!
- Participants under 13 must be accompained and supervised by a parent/guardian at all times.
Programme Details
- Approximate Duration: 2 hours (Please arrive 15 minutes before the tour for registration)
- Language: English
- Meeting Point: Meet at Ang Mo Kio MRT Station Exit B - Street Level (2450 Ang Mo Kio Ave 8, Singapore 569811)
- Ending Point: The event will start and end at the same point.
- The events will proceed rain or shine.
What to bring?
- Participants should be dressed respectfully in smart casual (i.e. collared shirt, long pants and covered shoes). Sleeveless attire, shorts/miniskirts or sandals are strictly not allowed. Participants will be denied entry if they dress inappropriately.
- Participants should bring along an umbrella and a bottle of water.
- Please ensure that you bring along any personal medication. Asthmatic individuals are reminded to bring their inhaler.
Other important information
- Dishes contain rice wine. The food is not non-vegetarian and not halal-certified.
- Parking is available at AMK Hub.
- The venue is not wheelchair accessible.
- Photography is allowed at event premises.
Disclaimer
- Each ticket admits only one participant.
- By agreeing to participate in the tour, every participant will be responsible for any injury, loss of damage due to careIessness of other actions on his/her part or that of children under his/her charge.
- Videos and photographs may also be taken during the event. By registering for this event, you give My Community full rights to use the photos for marketing and publicity.
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- Visit mycommunity.org.sg to learn about our initiatives.
- Visit mycommunityfestival.sg for all our latest updates.
