Indulge patients’ taste buds with new kids’ meal

“The length of stay for patients in child psychiatric ward would be longer than usual. They sometimes reflect that the hospital meals are monotonous and tends to in Chinese styles, so we worked with dietitians to come up with a new menu in order to offer patients more options if their conditions allow.” Kwai Chung Hospital launched the kids’ meal in last November in the child psychiatric ward. Gady Cheung, Catering Manager II says the menu received overwhelming response. Nearly 80% of the children in the ward are eager to try the new dishes.

The new menu is available for lunch and dinner, providing Japanese donburi and omurice, as well as fish fillet cutlet, hamburger and omelette, etc. Simply place an order on the food ordering system one day earlier, patients will be able to enjoy the meal the following day.

Gady explains that while the hospital’s kitchen usually provides Chinese cuisines, the chefs now have to prepare different sauces for Japanese and Western dishes, and further handling of ingredients. For example, they usually steam meat cakes with minced pork, but the chefs now have to roll the minced pork into meatballs or hamburger steaks. “Despite the extra workload, the chefs and the team are delighted to take this challenge, as the patients are very excited and the nurses notice that they eat faster than usual. In order to make the dishes even more tempting, we use colourful tableware instead. Patients finish up the meal and even the shredded vegetables, reducing food leftover in the meantime.” The hospital is now collecting feedback from ‘foodies’ to further explore the possibility of adding more dishes and expanding to other types of meal.