Jul. 23rd, 2021

In a time of extreme stress, one occasionally gets gems of pure idiocy to brighten one's day:

https://mothership.sg/2021/07/congee-cultural-appropriation-breakfast-cure/


An American woman apparently thinks that rice porridge (it has various names, dependng on who's talking; 'rice porridge' is fine in English) is some sort of miracle health food. She may just think that enough people will be stupid enough to believe her, in which case she would at least be an honest scammer.

Normally I do not care about these things, though they are at least good for a laugh and if people are stupid enough to pay for it, it's not my problem. If you want more, Google "crispy rendang" and also any article about drinking pandan/screwpine juice under the impression that it is a "superfood", not to mention the people who cannot tell the difference among coconut water, coconut milk and coconut oil.

However, she also thinks that adding massive quantities of sugar and sugary things to turn it into very expensive breakfast rice pudding would be an improvement and would make people buy it (she may not be wrong, I suppose, I did find US food extraordinarily sweet, even things that were normally not supposed to be, like bread and boiled cabbage). There are some very good sweets involving rice and rice flour; in my opinion the best are Middle-eastern (though these tend to involve milk, so I eat them in small quantities, despite their deliciousness), Southeast Asian and Japanese:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=iranian+persian+rice+pudding&atb=v225-1&ia=images&iax=images

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=nonya+kueh&atb=v225-1&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=wagashi&atb=v225-1&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images

Chinese rice porridge, however, is not among them.

It is a savoury dish. Hong Kong people eat it for breakfast, I'm told. In my neck of the woods it's suitable at any time. It can be cooked until it is a sort of glue-like paste (not my preference), or until the rice grains are still discernible. Shreds of chicken or fish, and chopped spring onion are usually cooked with it. There are condiments as well: pickled vegetables, pickled or salted fish, red or green chillies in soya sauce, savoury crisp-fried dough sticks sliced into chunks. Nice, but ordinary. Fast food for when you don't have a lot of time at lunch, or home cooking when someone is feeling poorly.

Get your rice pudding elsewhere.

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anna_wing

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