It’s funny what food counts as “comfort” food. This morning I wish I was having that oh-so-traditional Chinese breakfast called jook in Cantonese ( zhou ç²¥ in Mandarin) or rice congee in English (I dislike this name, it makes it sound very unappealing). I’d like my bowl of jook with some hundred-year egg (pei dan 皮蛋 in Cantonese; pi dan in Mandarin), chopped spring onion, and oil-fried ghosts (yau ja guai 油炸鬼 in Cantonese; you tiao æ²¹æ¢ in Mandarin).
Jook is another dish that is a bit of an acquired taste, I think, although it is not as objectionable to Western palates as durian tends to be. (For example I don’t think M really likes the idea of eating extremely runny rice with weird condiments, and especially not at breakfast time. Sorry M, you are my yardstick in this post!) Hundred-year egg in particular is definitely an acquired taste – you first need to overcome any feelings of revulsion you may have when you look at the greeny-black egg ‘white’ and the blackish curdled-looking yolk. And then the flavour is quite different to what you might expect eggs to taste like. The Wikipedia description is quite good, I think.
The oil-fried ghosts (yau ja guai 油炸鬼) are what I like to think of as the Chinese version of croutons. Despite their colourful name they are simply deep-fried dough sticks that go very well with the soupy consistency of the jook.
And why, you may ask, do I feel like comfort food this morning? Well, I’m feeling a bit sorry for myself this morning as I seem to have a slight stomach ache. Although it isn’t making me feel that bad, it did put the idea of taking a sickie into my head, which I have had to squelch because I have too much on today. Not to mention that it’s going to pour with rain this morning, and I’ve left my brolly in the office. Hence the feeling sorry for myself.
And what did I have for breakfast? Definitely not jook – two bits of toast with plum preserve, and a strong cup of tea. Boo!
Categories: food, Chinese, navel-gazing
5 Comments
Sounds heavenly to me. I had intended on some turkish bread toast with peanut butter this morning, but never got around to it. 🙁
Bloody hell. Looks like the spammers have got your site in their list. Does Blogger offer any help in that area?
Speaking of spam…
For me comfort food is always fried spam, egg and rice. When I am sick I like pork mince jook or gingery fish jook. Plain jook with omelette and some fried spam is also good. With soy sauce sprinkled over the top. YUM! There is always a tin of spam in our pantry.
4 spam comments since this post went up >:[
Dunno what Blogger offers by way of anti-spam…
Yup I love jook. You can do it the plain way like you do and add condiments: salted eggs, century eggs, pickled lettuces, canned fish in black bean sauce – yummo.
Or cook it with marinated meats: pork, fish or chicken. Add garlic oil, sesame seed oil and pepper. If it’s fish porridge, you can add a bit of coriander to go with it. Heavenly! 🙂
Mmmm… I might have to make some over the weekend!!