Rice Congee – how to deal with left-over rice

Rice congee is common comfort food, usually as breakfast in China. Left-over rice (from the day before) is slowly cooked with a lot of water, so the result is watery rice porridge. (Boring!)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_congee

I never liked it when I was a child, because it looks like eating glue. Most home-cooked congee is plain with rice and some other side dishes (salty eggs, pickles, etc), nothing fancy. I thought that was the most boring breakfast and refuse to eat it.

After I came to Toronto, I really get into eating congee. Cantonese cooking really brings the congee to another level. They add a lot of meat and varieties to the simple congee dish. There are some restaurants in north Toronto only serves congee, like Congee Wong. Since they have lots of customers, I assume the congees are not made from left-over rice.

My favorite congee is fish congee. I normally have it at King’s Noodle restaurant (at Spadina & Dundas). The congee is the right texture, not too watery. I don’t know what kind of fish is that, but it is not fish at all. The fish is very tender. Thin slices of ginger and green onion add nice strong punch to the blank congee. If you want more, add some white pepper powder.