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'Cia Po' goodness?: Chinese herbal dish gains popularity amid pandemic
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Immune booster?: Cia po is a Chinese traditional herbal soup that is believed to help people boost their immune systems. (Personal Collection/Courtesy of Kezia Poernama Sari) (Personal Collection/Courtesy of Kezia Poernama Sari)
As people seek to fortify themselves against COVID-19, some have turned to traditional herbal foods.
The pandemic has boosted the habit of consuming healthy foods as a method of building immunity. Among these types of food are Chinese herbal dishes, commonly known as cia po, which are particularly popular in Chinese-Indonesian communities. Cia po derives from the Hokkien dialect, while in Mandarin it is called chī bǔ -- chī meaning “to eat” while bǔ means “to repair”. Together, the term can be translated as simply “tonic”.
Friska Dhammawati, who studied pharmacy at Jinan University in China, said that ever since the pandemic, the consumption of unhealthy food or ultra-processed food has decreased significantly. Moreover, according to the Indonesian Organic Alliance (AOI), sales of organic food experienced a steady increase of 16 percent in 2021.
Cia po most commonly comes in the form of chicken stock that has been infused with herbs like goji berries, ginger and other Chinese herbs that are believed to have healing properties and the ability to boost the immune system. While they certainly take a long time to cook, herbal soups can now be easily found on social media platforms like Instagram so people can readily order them.
Lina Meliawati, a housewife from Malang, East Java, who was infected by COVID-19 last year, took a herbal soup prepared by her in-laws, as her family believed that it could help her recover better.
“My family made me soup from free-range chicken with goji berries. I took it because they’d prepared it for me, and chicken stock is known to have enough vitamins for your health,” she said.
