What You'll Do

Join Thanannat, known as “Kwang,” for a heartfelt dinner rooted in the nourishing traditions of Central Thai confinement food. As part of My Community Festival 2025, this intimate dining experience offers a rare glimpse into the quiet rituals of postpartum care—where every dish is lovingly prepared to restore balance, build strength, and support healing after childbirth.

In Central Thai culture, confinement meals are more than just food—they are a form of care passed down through generations, grounded in a deep understanding of the body’s needs after giving birth. The dishes are warm, easy to digest, and rich in nutrients, designed to replenish the body after the loss of blood and boost circulation with natural heat from herbs and spices.

Kwang’s menu features comforting dishes crafted with traditional ingredients known for their healing properties. You’ll be welcomed with a Spicy Prawn Soup with Vegetables, brimming with pumpkin, luffa, baby corn, and mushrooms—gently spiced with finger root, red onion, and pepper to warm the body and awaken the senses.

From the stove, Stir-Fried Fish with Ginger Sauce brings a gentle heat and digestive support, while Vinegar Pork Trotters offer richness and nourishment. Grilled Lemongrass Chicken introduces the citrusy lift of lemongrass, revered for its detoxifying and anti-inflammatory benefits.

You’ll also find balance in earthy sides like Stir-Fried Pumpkin with Dried Shrimp, Garlic Fried Rice, and Kwang's signature dessert: Mango Sticky Rice made with Black Glutinous Rice mixed with Barley, Kidney Beans, and Green Beans—a medley that’s as wholesome as it is comforting.

Throughout the meal, ingredients such as ginger and pepper gently raise the body’s warmth, improving circulation and aiding recovery. Garlic promotes immunity and balance, while the variety of vegetables delivers essential nutrients vital for postpartum renewal.

This dinner is more than a culinary journey—it’s an invitation into the tender world of maternal care through food. Whether you're familiar with Thai cuisine or exploring it for the first time, Kwang’s table offers a deep, sensory experience of love, resilience, and the quiet strength of women caring for one another across generations.

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

Thanannat, also known as “Kwang,” didn’t always love the F&B business. Coming from a tech freelance background and later trying out a bakery, she found the hot, tiring kitchen work tough. But everything changed when she started a home-based Thai food venture with her auntie-in-law. Their shared passion led to Thai Salad Bowl at Oxley Tower and Thai Bowl at Gopeng Street, where they now serve healthy, home-style Thai dishes.

Setting up the business was simple, but sustaining it came with challenges—money struggles, rental costs, and the difficulty of marketing unique healthy Thai flavours to Singaporeans. To grow, Kwang took a marketing course, learning that running a food business means more than cooking—you must know how to share your story and market it too.

For Kwang, healthy Thai food isn’t just a trend—it’s a way to connect people to her culture through thoughtful, balanced meals. Every dish is crafted with care, using fresh ingredients and traditional techniques that highlight the natural flavours of Thai cuisine. It's this mix of heritage, heart, and health that keeps customers coming back.

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 the entrance of Sheng Siong supermarket at Blk 643 Senja Close Singapore 670643

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 may contain peanuts, tree nuts, eggs and dairy products. The food is not non-vegetarian and not halal-certified.
Parking is available at the multistorey carpark at Blk 643 Senja Cl, Singapore 670643.
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.

For updates:

Follow us at @mycommunitysg on Instagram and @myqueenstown on Facebook.
Visit mycommunity.org.sg to learn about our initiatives.
Visit mycommunityfestival.sg for all our latest updates.

My Central Thai Dinner with Thanannat Yanotai