My very early memories of "What to eat when you have morning sickness" dated back to those 1980s HK TV dramas. The story lines were very straight forward and simple. In 9 out of 10 scenarios, it would be a young lady got pregnant by accident and felt nausea, showing signs of vomiting, wanting to eat "sour" things such as preserved lemons (鹹檸檬) and dried plums (話梅)! Then, people around her starting to suspect what's happening and she would be so stressed out and lost, crying badly, having no way out and was trying to end her pregnancy by eating watermelon (西瓜)!
ha ha ha.... that was really an outdated image of accidental pregnancy before marriage. Nowadays, if you got pregnant by accident, especially in Japan, people will say, "congratulations to you!!!" (おめでとうございます！！！） because no one wants to give birth anymore and it is such a great and happy event that finally someone is pregnant! It is no longer a shameful event (at least in Japan) that you got pregnant before marriage. I wonder what is it like in HK now. However, please don't get me wrong, I still believe the orthodox way, meaning babies should come after proper marriages!!!! ha ha ha... I am an old lady!
A lot of ladies will change their taste and found a "certain" food intolerable. Below may be some remedies, but I have no guarantee that it will work on everyone as each person is different.
The reason for having morning sickness in Chinese herbalist's point of view is because pregnant woman's strength and health got weaken, the "chi" (気) in her body can't flow properly, so it will upset its stomach hence losing appetite.
Lemon Chicken (檸檬鶏):
Lemon (檸檬). Lemon can not only quench your thirst, it also can help to alleviate morning sickness. 檸檬性溫、味苦、無毒。 中醫認為檸檬可以止渴生津、祛暑清熱、安胎、疏滯、化痰、止咳、健胃、健脾、止痛、殺菌等功能。 No wonder those old HK TV dramas mentioned about eating "lemon" at the early stage of pregnancy.
Function: 醒脾和胃補中益気
Chicken fillet: 1 piece (200g) or pork (no beef please.... or you can use pigeon or quail!!! ha ha ha who will bother to fillet such tiny bird...!!!)
Salt 1/4 tea spoon (Not too salty for pregnant women....)
1/2 egg
Corn starch
Onion 1/3, sliced it.
Lemon sauce:
Fresh lemon 1/2 juice it.
Lemon peels (try to get an organic lemon), finely chopped it.
Chicken broth 1/2 cup
Soya sauce 1.5 tea spoon (not too salty for pregnant women and if the chicken broth has salt in it already, you may wish to reduce the amount of soya sauce)
Brown sugar 1.5 tea spoon
Corn starch to thicken the sauce
Recipe:
1. Slit the chicken fillet slightly on the meat side.
2. Rub the salt all over the fillet.
3. Dip the fillet into the whisked egg then coat it with corn starch, remove excess starch.
4. Heat up a non-stick fry pan or wok, add a table spoon of oil, swirl it all around the pan, then place the chicken (skin down) over medium to high heat for about 3 minutes, chicken oil will come out, then turn the fire to low, slowly pan fry the fillet until all the oil comes out, use kitchen towel to absorb the excess oil, turn the fillet over and cook it until done. Make sure to absorb the OIL!!!
Sauce:
1. Heat a table spoon of oil over a non-stick pan or wok.
2. Fry the sliced onion until clear.
3. Add the lemon juice, lemon peel, chicken broth, soya sauce, sugar and bring it to boil.
4. Then thicken the sauce with corn starch liquid.
5. Taste it but I strong recommend "mild taste" meaning not too salty for pregnant women.
6. Pour the sauce over the chicken fillet.
(Example)
Sweet and sour minced pork with cold noodles (糖醋肉碎冷麵):
This is really not a good picture because during pregnancy, we should avoid eggplants. That's because a pregnant woman should avoid eating 通経、去瘀 food, meaning food that can boost the blood circulation. Eggplant's cooling and "blood cleaning" nature is definitely not ideal for pregnant women, so please don't eat if you are expecting although each person is different, some people eat it and nothing will happen, just to play safe, try to avoid it.
The sour taste of the pork will increase your appetite and the Shiso (紫蘇） can help to ease the morning sickness discomfort as it can ease the stomach upset plus cease vomiting.
Function: 醒脾和中
Minced pork 200 g.
Minced ginger, 1 tea spoon.
Minced spring onion (white part root area only 葱白), 1 tea spoon.
Sauce:
Zhang Gong Vinegar (鎮江醋) 1 table spoon
Soya sauce 1 table spoon
Brown sugar 2.5 tea spoon
Rice wine 1 tablespoon
Water 50cc
Heat up 1.5 tablespoon of oil to the wok or fry pan over medium heat, fry the minced ginger and spring onions, then add the ground pork. When the pork has changed its color to white, add the sauce and cooked until the meat sauce is dried up with a shine.
Boil the cold noodles until soft, mix it with the meat sauce and cut up some fresh Shiso (紫蘇 ) then mix the noodles well to serve.
(Example)
Just to be frank, when I was pregnant with my 2 girls, I ate whatever I felt like and had no taboo on any what-so-ever "food"!
I had eggplants, watermelons, bitter melons, etc... all those considered to be too "cooling" to pregnant women; chili sauce, deep fried, those considered to be too "heating" to pregnant women; tea and coffee, those considered to be too "stimulating" to pregnant women......... I had them all! I guess, my body was OK enough to sustain all these external bad influences to pregnant women.
Yet, one thing for sure, when I was pregnant, I felt tired very easily. No stamina to stand up cooking a feast to myself. I bet there are thousands and millions of people who share this with me, when you don't feel like doing anything, just make a cup of tea to relax!
Cardamon Lemon Tea:
If you feel like your stomach is filled with gas, not wanting to eat, burps a lot, try this tea. Cardamon is something similar to 砂仁 in Chinese herbs except it is "raw" not "processed". Meaning it is really mild. The processed Cardamon will be 砂仁. 砂仁 can alleviate morning sickness as well as stabilize your fetus.
2 Cardamon, crush it.
1 slice of lemon
1 slice of ginger
From my experience, the key point is to "relax" and "enjoy" your pregnancy. The baby will come out much sooner than what you think!
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