I can’t stand too much child-related chat, and have promised to keep it to a minimum on this blog, but the fact remains that I am due to have a baby in about 2 weeks time.  In true Changmoh style I am, of course, planning on doing a month’s confinement. All my angmoh friends are hugely curious about what this will entail and, primarily, whether or not I am going to wash my hair. And the answer is…

…a resounding YES (working on the basis that after giving birth, I don’t think it’s too unreasonable to see a bath and a hair wash as an absolute minimum requirement in the beauty/health & hygiene department).

OK, so this may mean I am doing confinement with a small ‘c’ and only trying to follow the rules and regulations in terms of what I eat coupled with not doing much in the way of partying for the first month. I have bravely told myself, safe within a 2 week window of having to deliver both my child and on my promise, that I will chow down what Wendy puts in front of me, whether it’s braised pig’s trotter with ginger or whatever else constitutes confinement food.

The confinement crew believe that you only have one month to replenish your body after the ordeal of birth has depleted it of its strength and resources;  the way to do this is through numerous Chinese herbs cooked into soups and other food.  My dedication to the concept is currently solely based on the fact that I still feel quite a long way off having to eat anything remotely trotter-ish…

…But in for a penny, in for a pound.  I am turning fanatical: when I heard from my lovely friend CK that there is only place in the whole of Singapore that sells the special Hong Kong sweetened vinegar ‘Pat Chun’ which makes pigs trotter all the more tasty, if such a thing is possible, I was there on Saturday, nine months preggers, scouring the aisles of the wet market in Chinatown to find it.

So yes, desperate as ever to be as Chinese as I possibly can, I discovered old aunty’s provision stall in the bowels of Chinatown Complex (pictured at the top of the page; #B1-188 in case you too feel like you can’t possibly be without this crucial condiment) and bought up quite a few bottles that I feel certain should last well in to next month.

I wait with baited breath to see if this is the thing that makes all the difference to a gelatinous congealed pork dish, and whether or not I can actually manage to eat it.

Pat Chun bottle image courtesy of Houston Culture Map