Tian Wei Signature Review (14 Day Lunch)
I did DIY confinement and hence explored the convenient option of confinement tingkat meals. I believe such demand is increasing with more caterers joining in. The newest addition being Tian Wei Signature (“Tian Wei”). I tried their trial meal and was quite impressed. However, I still went for the tried and tested Thomson Medical Confinement Food for 28 Days.
A friend shared how she had no time to prepare lunch after her confinement nanny was gone and so she advised me to order tingkat for lunch. The husband can easily buy dinner back. And since my body was still recovering after 30 days, I decided to go for confinement tingkat instead of the usual one for the next 10 days. You must have heard of people doing a 40-Day confinement? :P. So I decided to try a different caterer this time round and approached Tian Wei Signature. They then offered to sponsor me a 14 Day lunch plan for my thoughts and review.
Tian Wei Signature Review (Food)
What makes Tian Wei Signature different from the rest is the creativity that’s infused into their confinement meals. With Tian Wei preparing both traditional and fusion meals, you will less likely be bored with the food during your confinement period! Because with traditional meals, you’ll get sick of it after a while. Imagine eating mixed rice (什菜饭) everyday for 30 days.
Generally
According to Tian Wei, Chef Eugene, their head chef with over 16 years of experience, has specially curated meals that are healthy, appetising and lactation friendly for modern day mothers. Some of the ingredients that are in their meals to boost milk supply include fenugreek, salmon, quinoa, etc. That is good news for me who is doing 100% breastfeeding. It’s vital to eat a healthy balanced diet with ingredients that boost milk supply, especially in the early days.
Moreover, I like that they have different variations of rice and more importantly, of a healthier choice: Tri Colour Rice (三色饭), Barley Millet Rice (薏米小米饭), Brown Rice (糙米饭), and Quinoa Mixed Rice (藜麥配饭). The latter three provide much carbohydrates without the extra calories. *Yays!*
Fusion meals
I was initially apprehensive if the fusion meals will be nutritious enough. However, Tian Wei assured me that they do not miss out on the essential ingredients needed to boost mother’s recovery during confinement period. And ginger juice is used instead of the slices so that mothers who have aversion to ginger can still enjoy their meals.
Overall, I think fusion meals are more palatable for mothers nowadays, because most of us are not used to the variety of Chinese herbs and ingredients used in confinement meals. Naturally, my favourite out of all the meals is a fusion meal!
The set comprised of Seared Salmon & Broccoli With Cauliflower Cream (香煎花椰菜奶油三文鱼), Tri Colour Grains (三色谷), and Red Bean Puree With Orange Peel Dessert (陈皮红豆沙). You can see the dishes in the photo above. The dishes are unique and tasted good! I like the cauliflower cream on the salmon and the rice and quinoa that matched with it. If I’m not wrong, this is their specialty. Drooling when thinking of it! Yum! Oh and instead of herbal soup, you get a red bean paste dessert – special!
Traditional meal
I usually could not finish Tian Wei’s traditional meals because the portion is quite big, probably enough for 1.5 persons. This is good because the extra portion made up for the ingredients I don’t eat. I would pick them out and put aside for my hubby to finish at dinner.
If you are a picky eater like me, you might want to look through Tian Wei’s menu (www.tianweisignature.com/confinement-food-menu), especially for traditional meals to see what are the ingredients you don’t like, and indicate in your order form. They will take note of those ingredients and try to avoid including them in your meal. I didn’t indicate because I have a hubby who eats (almost) everything.
And in confinement meals, there is sure to be a dish of Braised Pork Trotter In Black Vinegar (猪脚醋). I am not a trotters fan, but found it appetising for its trial meal and was looking forward to it. However, the meat of the meal delivered this time was scarce and are mostly fats, which I don’t eat. Some people like the fats, but I don’t. Hence I ended up eating only 10% of the dish and gave the rest to hubby. Perhaps you might want to indicate in your order for more meat. Also, the vinegar taste of the actual meal was not as strong as the trial meal.
Packaging and Ordering
Packaging
The food came in microwavable disposable containers. Convenient to heat up if you are too busy with the baby to eat when they arrived, and convenient to throw away after eating. I think its more hygienic compared to reusable bags and containers used by Thomson Medical Confinement (TMC). Then again the latter is more environmentally friendly, with less BPA. This is just for your information, and not a deal breaker on which to choose.
These food containers are then packed in a thermal bag. The bags you received with each delivery are not for you to keep, except for the one on the last delivery. Though it would have been nice to be able to keep them all. Anyway, I left the cooler bag outside so they can collect when they made the next delivery. I had asked them to ring the bell and just leave the food outside. This is so I know the food was here but didn’t need to drop everything I was doing to open the door.
Order Form
If you are interested in Tian Wei’s confinement meal, simply fill up a simple order form and state your requirements.
One good thing about the form is that they have a list of special request section. You can tick the ingredients you don’t want to be included in your meals. The list is helpful because when other caterers asked me what I don’t eat, I usually can’t quote them off hand.
Other notable mention is their add on section. You can add meals for additional pax. So if your husband or mother is helping you with confinement, it will be so convenient to add on a meal for them with Tian Wei. In this way, they don’t need to leave the house to grab their meals. Another good add on is the 28 days bathing herb set. Save you the hassle of getting it separately.
At the order form, enter promo code: ‘babyjoogostyle’ to receive S$148 discount on 28 Days Double Package (Lunch & Dinner), with its usual price at S$1,688. You can take a look at their pricing at www.tianweisignature.com/confinement-meal-booking
Terms and Conditions: The promo code is valid up till 30 June 2018. Not valid with other promotions.
Enjoy your confinement! 🙂
Update 10 February 2018
It’s good to know that Tian Wei is constantly improving their offerings based on mummies’ feedback. The team recently came up with a few new dishes and asked if I wanted to try them. I said why not? I’m always up for a well-balanced meal these days because I’m still breastfeeding my little one. She needs the good food and nutrients. 🙂
On first look, the new dishes appeared to be more traditional than what I previously had. The taste also seemed to lean towards the traditional type of meals, but still with a fusion twist. The menu goes like this, “Thai Lemongrass Salmon”, “Miso Ginger Threadfin”, etc.
The more memorable dishes for me would be black barley mix rice (I think their rice options are really good), stir fried french beans with egg and tomato, salmon and fortune herbal chicken. My husband voted for their cumin garlic pork. Their soup was passable while their dessert (sweet potato longan ginger soup) had a very strong ginger taste which I personally found it hard to swallow. So if you are not a gingery person, you might want to request for Tian Wei to tone it down.
Speaking of which, I noticed a spike in ginger slices used this time round. I thought they only used ginger juice? This is what Tian Wei’s representative replied with: “We are trying to cater to mummies who like to have more ginger in their meals, and also mummies who don’t like the strong taste of ginger. So there will now be ginger soups and ginger slices included in a few of the dishes. For mummies who prefer to have less ginger, we would use fewer ginger slices or ginger juice.”
I supposed traditional looking meals look more nourishing to many mummies and that is what they want in their first confinement month. Hence my guess is, Tian Wei is finding the sweet spot of bringing traditional meals that are palatable to the modern tastebuds.
So what have you heard about Tian Wei Signature? Please leave your thoughts below. I would love to hear from you!