Food for bodies, healing and comfort

On Other tongue 餓 ghost kitchen, a postpartum takeaway service by artist Ruby Chang-Jet White.

Nau mai, haere mai. Welcome to The Boil Up, The Spinoff’s fortnightly food newsletter. I hope you’re hungry!

When my best friend was approaching her due date, I received an email inviting me to join a meal train. The idea was simple: in their early postpartum weeks, friends would drop off kai to the new and likely exhausted parents, ideally something home-cooked and nourishing (although if I recall correctly, we did drop round takeout from Shefco one time, which was gratefully received). Perhaps as important as the food itself was the drop-off – not a visit, not a lingering chat, just a parcel of food left on the doorstep or handed over with no expectation of being invited in for a cup of tea.

This kind of care has echoes in other traditions, such as 坐月子 Zuo yue zi, or “sitting the month”. Often referred to as postpartum confinement, Zuo yue zi is really about caring for new mothers, allowing them time to rest while providing nourishing, restorative foods to aid their recovery from childbirth.

This week in Naarm, artist Ruby Chang-Jet White has been pulling long days cooking for the first edition of her project Other tongue 餓 ghost kitchen, a postpartum takeaway food service informed by Zuo yue zi cuisine (specifically Hakka dishes) and Chinese medicine philosophy, as well as the food Ruby herself ate during her fourth trimester. Locals could pre-order meals for themselves or for a loved one recovering from birth, surgery, or illness, choosing from a menu of three dishes: 擂茶 Lei Cha, 鸡鸭三米粥 Chicken and duck three rice congee, and a generous side of 猪脚姜 Hakka braised pork, all available for pick-up at Bus Projects, an artist-run gallery in Brunswick. Next week, the project (and menu) will continue, this time in Ōtautahi as part of the exhibition Yawning at the Fray at The Physics Room (pre-orders are available here – even if you aren’t Ōtautahi-based, I encourage you to click through just to read Ruby’s delicious, informative descriptions of each dish).

Ruby is an artist whose practice has long centred on kai, so much so that it’s often hard to discern where the art ends and breakfast begins, as with her (short-lived, much-missed) Pakuranga café, Small Fry, where everything – from the kai to the bowls to the long wooden table – was handcrafted by Ruby. When I asked her what inspired this latest project she explained: “I think it’s been a long time coming. I see food existing in a deeply intimate and primal realm of pleasure and survival, but it’s hard to tap into that feeling day to day when mainstream food feels so salty, profit-led, and masc. My food practice has been shifting over the past decade, and this new direction, looking into postpartum cuisine, feels like I’ve been searching for this since the beginning.”

Having given birth for the first time last year, Other tongue is also shaped by the desire to provide kai for “birthing, menstruating bodies and for people that require healing and/or comfort” while also considering her own limitations as a full-time carer for her one-year-old. “I couldn’t have done this without having a baby of my own – experiencing pregnancy, labour, birth, postpartum, the terror of loving.”

The name Other tongue acknowledges the absence of her maternal mother tongue (Cantonese and Hakka), but also speaks to food as an alternative form of language, while 餓 ghost kitchen is borne from Ruby’s interested in the 餓鬼 hungry ghost figure from Chinese mythology, described as an ancestor who emerges from neglect, driven by intense emotional needs. “In the context of a postpartum food service, I think the idea of a hungry ghost is reframed as something more tangible, linking into ancestry, lineage and our babies. Hungry ghosts manifesting as the pain, anxiety and insecurities our bodies hold on too. It’s about deep listening and trusting your instincts.”

I was sick while I was emailing Ruby, fighting a gnarly sinus infection. As I learned more about the project, I was inspired to order myself something healing for lunch. Or perhaps inspired is the wrong word – Ruby told me that one of the most helpful things during her own postpartum period last year was the framework offered by practices like Zuo yue zi. “It gave me permission to really *try* to rest, stay home and not have visitors(!),” she explained. Rather than feeling inspired to order in, learning about Zuo yue zi and Other tongue 餓 ghost kitchen has given me permission to order myself a big bowl of chicken laksa, to slurp the spiced oily broth and find the comfort I need.

Next week: Our most ambitious pop culture project ever

For over a decade, The Spinoff has been passionate about local television. Next week we launch our most ambitious project yet: a definitive list and ranking of the Top 100 New Zealand television shows of the 21st century.A panel of seasoned critics and our in-house couch potatoes have made their calls, and the countdown to number one starts Monday, October 21.

Subscribe to Rec Room now to get the rankings delivered directly to you as soon as they're live each day.

Weekly bites

The Metro Restaurant of the Year awards took place earlier this week and Duncan Greive was there to report on the mood: celebratory, but also reverent for what the restaurant’s in Tāmaki collectively deliver. It came as no surprise to me, an ardent fan, that Forest took out the top prize, winning Restaurant of the Year as well as Best Smart and Best Dessert for their olive oil ice cream, sherry vinegar caramel, vanilla sherbet and fresh black truffle.

A new study has revealed that picky eating is likely down to nature far more than nurture, with genetics playing a much bigger role than previously assumed. However, as this column points out, there are more factors involved in children’s lack of desire to eat healthy kai than we like to acknowledge, including the insipid, unappetising nature of supermarket vege that is detached not only from its natural origins (onions peeled, fruit pre-cut, wrapped in plastic) but barely even tastes like itself anymore.

Not news, but I loved reading Ensemble’s round-up of what various people eat for brekky. Some of them shocked me – “Black coffee x2” on an empty stomach!! – while others sounded like an influencer-post with very specific, branded ingredients. Special shout out to Petra Bagust’s husband and his bread maker. Would love to know what you’re all eating for breakfast! Is everyone really having scrambled eggs or a protein smoothie?

Join our community of supporters

"I like that it feels like chipping in for a good cause, rather than paying for a subscription." - Kimberley, Spinoff member.

Whether you read, listen to or watch our mahi, you can support us to do more by donating today or signing up to become a member. Already a member? Ka nui te mihi, your support means the world to us.

Snack Review

Streets Cookie Crumble and Coco Pops Ice Cream (100ml, about $3.50 from the freezer at your local dairy)

My love affair with Cookie Crumbles began as a child living in Australia, where they go by the superior name Golden Gaytime. When I really think about it, it’s kind of crazy that such a seemingly niche treat has enjoyed cult status across both countries for so long – testament to just how good of a flavour/texture combo is caramel and vanilla ice creams + chocolate + crushed up biscuits. Typing this, I want one.

What I do not want is this Coco Pops monstrosity. I’m not sure what came over me when I picked this out of the dairy freezer, given the age of cursed product crossovers we live in. I suppose I thought it would be just like a Cookie Crumble only crunchy in a puffed rice way rather than a biscuit way. I was wrong, because it wasn’t crunchy at all, nor was it even very chocolatey. It was sort of just a muted ice cream of no specific flavour covered in a soft brown coating. The coco pops had gone soggy, rather like when you leave cereal in the milk too long. After a single bite, I was kicking myself for not having grabbed the standard, superior version. Lesson learned. 2/10

The second episode of Home Education features Felix, who is neurodiverse and found it difficult to find a school that fit him. Now, he’s making friends at Forest School where he goes weekly and building up his confidence at improv theatre classes. He’s taught at home by his mum Rachel, who never thought she would be home educating, ever. Struggling at times to keep Felix motivated in his learning at home, Rachel taps into his passion for world history (and their recent discovery of a former top-secret bunker in Mt Eden) as the means to inspire deeper engagement. Made with the support of NZ On Air.