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. 

Health benefits: Friska explains that micro nutrients that found in the herbal plants important for cell growth, including immune cells. (Personal Collection/Courtesy of Friska Dhammawati) (Personal Collection/Courtesy of Friska Dhammawati)

When it comes to herbal and traditional medicines, there have always been followers and detractors. However, the pandemic has made skeptics more open toward consuming different things in the hope of supplementing their health. Friska explained that macronutrients, obtained from carbohydrates, fats and protein, and micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals are equally important for cell growth, including immune cells.

“Herbal food, in this case cia po, contains ingredients from plants or parts of plants that contain bioactive compounds and are rich in micronutrients,” she said. Being a Chinese-Indonesian herself, Friska is used to consuming herbal soup. She believes that the increase in its popularity is also owed to word-of-mouth or via communication messengers such as WhatsApp.

Booming business

A housewife who also runs a canteen at a school in Surabaya, East Java, Lydiawati Karim used to cook various types of dishes. As the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to close down, her catering business suffered. Fortunately, she soon discovered that a growing number of people were looking for cia po to boost their immune systems.

“At first I only made it for my own daughter, but during the second wave of COVID-19 in Indonesia, more people ordered the herbal soup. I could prepare at least 50 bowls a day,” Lydiawati said. She added that in the past she usually received orders from people who had just given birth.

Kezia Poernama Sari and Felicia Paramita who have co-owned and run a cia po business in Surabaya for the last three years, explained that ever since the pandemic their sales had tripled, especially during the June-July 2021 outbreak.

“The most requested order that we received was a herbal soup infused with Himalayan mushrooms, ginger and ginseng,” Kezia said.

She then added that people consume cia po not just to help them recover from COVID-19. More people have also started to consume it for its more commonly believed use, to recover from a cold and to heal after delivering a baby.

“There are different versions of cia po recipes. People usually customize their order based on their intended benefits,” Kezia claimed.

Back to the roots

“Everyone from my family is a good cook, and I’ve been learning how to cook the herbal dish since I was young. In a way, it’s also like connecting to my roots,” Lydiawati said.

She further said that she had been teaching her daughter to cook versions of the dish as well.

Felicia shares a similar story of learning recipes from her grandmother, with no thought of selling it.

“I remember she taught me how to measure the ingredients properly in my early twenties, and I still remember the first time I tried it, I didn’t like it that much because it was bitter.”

Ingredients: Goji berries (left) and Szechwan Lovage Rhizome (right) are few of the herbs that are commonly used in the herbal soup. They can be found at the nearest Chinese medicine shop. (JP/Yohana Belinda) (JP/Yohana Belinda)

One of Felicia’s grandmother’s signature dishes is chicken stock infused with goji berries, lotus seeds, and ginseng, believed to help boost stamina.

“I think that we as the younger generation should help preserve the traditional recipes,” she adds.

While it may be experiencing a boost in popularity, there is no medical backing when it comes to cia po.

“There has [only] been empirical evidence about herbal soup, which is sort of similar to when we drink jamu [herbal medicine]. But scientifically, researchers are yet to find any evidence beyond that,” Friska adds.

Dicky Budiman, a health practitioner who currently resides in Brisbane, Australia, explained that although herbs have been used in medicines since ancient times, people need to be more aware that infectious diseases cannot be treated by only consuming herbal food.

"For example, while it is true that garlic contains an antibiotic, eating it raw will not be enough to fight bacterial infection. Because you need a higher concentration of antibiotics. However, consuming herbal material could be a form of support for your health. For example, drinking ginger to keep you warm during cold weather is something that scientifically makes more sense," he continued.

“You can consume cia po for your health, but you will still need to have fruit and vegetables included in your daily diet,” Friska said.