Diet Blog

I was sick yesterday and I can’t do anything. I slept for more than 16 hours (2pm to 6am of the other day). I still feel a little bit sick but I know I have to go back to work. I finished what I have to do by around eleven and I can’t stand anymore so I took another half day off.

Different recipe of congee

I went to Chinatown in NYC to get some congee. I have got 2 big container of pork and century egg congee. That’s a special Hong Kong style congee recipe. I love congee a lot that I can eat it all the time

Congee is a type of rice porridge. How to make congee? It is just rice cooked with extra water for long time until the rice break down into the water.

Most Chinese restaurant serves two different kind of congee. The first one is called white congee. White congee is rice cooked with water and bean cured for around 4 to 5 hours. White congess has no taste (no salt or any other flavor). Some time it is eaten with Salted preserved fish, salted preserved sausage or salted egg.

The other kind of congee is the one that come with meat. The chef uses white congee as the base and adds flavor and other ingredient in it. Common ingredient of congee include pork, ground beef, chicken, clam, octopus, fish or pig intestine. The chef will cook the ingredient with boiling congee for a few minutes. After the chef pours congee into a bowl, he puts some peanut, scallions, ginger and a little bit of white pepper powder. This kind of congee is not good for health. It looks like rice and water but it also has a lot of oil and salt in it. Also, the meat inside the congee is also flavored.

Beside Chinese congee, Japanese also eat congee. However, they add less water (a 5:1 ratio compares to 10:1 Cantonese style). If you are willing to pay more, you can get some fancy ingredient in bigger congee restaurant like Congee king, Congee Queen and Congee villages. You can found frog, mussel, oyster, sea cucumber, scallop abalone and crab on the menu. Some restaurant serves congee with brown rice. I tried it once and will never touch that again. My favorite congee eatery are Congee Village (New York), Congee Bowery (New York) and Congee Wong

Congee as a part of Chinese’s diet

Usually Chinese eat congee during breakfast with deep fried bread stick or Dim Sum. Chinese eat white congee in the morning and meat congee during the day. However, sometime congee replaces rice during lunch or dinner.
Here is a video about congee

origin of congee

One reason why they eat congee is during the war time the food is not enough, so they put in more water and make rice expand more. Actually the nutrition value is the same. However, you feel like you are eating more because you are actually drinking water with it

I made a few congee recipes, it is easy and you can try it at home

More information about Congee from WIkipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congee