The Joys of Zhou

Congee.

Porridge.

In Chinese, zhou (粥), which can mean rice porridge as well as stewed pumpkin, red beans, or a variety of things.

It's a world-wide staple, often the only thing to eat in times of poverty, made from a variety of grains: rice, oats, corn, wheat. But sometimes the most basic is also the best.

I was in Nanjing for a week staying with a student's family. We had zhou most mornings, which is simply rice porridge. It doesn't have much of a flavor. It's hot. It's drinkable. Quite good as Chinese breakfasts go. Admittedly, it's no waffles and bacon or omelette and home fries, but it also has no fat or cholesterol.

For a good zhou experience, though, you can't just eat the zhou. It's about the accoutrement! Boiled peanuts. Pickled cucumbers. Salty preserved cabbage. And cured turnips. The latter is the one to remember. It's intensely crisp, pleasantly salty. It turns out it's also pretty easy to make.

Halve a few large oblong white radishes, then slice into quarter inches (red radishes also work, but they are more bitter). Toss them with a lot of salt, then set them outside for two consecutive sunny days--in summer you prepare for winter. After two days, bring in the radishes and blanche them for a few minutes. Drain them and put them outside in the sun again for half a day. Then enjoy them for the next year every morning for breakfast.

If you're feeling particularly Chinese, buy some pi dan (皮蛋), a duck egg preserved in lye with a chemical reaction that results in a translucent-brown albumin and an opaque-black yolk. I think they're quite good as an accoutrement, but intense on their own. Think of them as the Chinese bleu cheese.
Fry some ground pork, slice up a pi dan, add it to your hot zhou with a bit of salt, and you're set until lunch.