What You'll Do

For this exciting edition of What's for My Dinner, Kenny will be highlighting the versatility and comfort of a classic ingredient in Teochew confinement cooking—threadfin fish. A staple in Teochew households, threadfin is prized for its delicate flavour and nourishing qualities, especially for postpartum recovery.

Kenny will be preparing Threadfin served four ways: in a light, clear soup; cooked into porridge; steamed to preserve its natural taste; and braised for a richer, deeper profile. By using the whole fish across different cooking styles, the dinner reflects a common confinement practice—keeping meals varied and balanced without straying from main ingredients that support healing.

Expect a clean, honest meal that focuses on gentle flavours and traditional techniques. This dinner offers a look at how Teochew food stays rooted in simplicity, nutrition, and everyday care.

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 Organisation

Pasarfish is a platform that focuses on outreach and research centred around the fish sold in Singapore’s wet markets and supermarkets. Combining concepts of environmental conservation and Singapore's seafood heritage together to promote the concept of sustainability and traceability in seafood supply chains, ensuring a future for our marine ecosystems. At the same time, Pasarfish aims to re-connect Singaporeans to our heritage and wet markets through a shared love for seafood.

About The Host

Kenny's childhood was spent amidst a huge Teochew family, often spending time in his grandparents house in Punggol, foraging for seafood all about. While often lost in Teochew conversations, he seeks to reconnect with his Teochew heritage background through the lenses of seafood.

With a background focusing on outreach, he spent his school years in Early Childhood Education and Marketing, honing it with years of experience in end-to-end programme development with organisations like WWF-Singapore and Sentosa, creating unique outreach projects catering to a wide variety of audiences. Kenny leads on Pasarfish’s outreach experiences and business development, to push for the preservation of seafood heritage in Singapore and sustainable seafood.

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 Serangoon MRT Station Exit C - Street level (600 Upper Serangoon Road, Singapore 534801)

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

The food is non-vegetarian and not halal-certified.
Parking is available at NEX Carpark.
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.

My Teochew Dinner with Kenny Lek from Pasarfish