Congee, My Comfort Food

Whenever I don’t feel good, I usually prefer to eat rice congee, also called as rice porridge, or lugaw in Filipino.

rice congee topped with rousong (dried pork floss) and soy sauce

Rice congee is my comfort food. I know most people would say chicken soup is best to eat when you are not . I prefer it over chicken soup. Come to think of it, chicken soup is not even on my top 3 food that I eat when I’m not feeling well.

I felt like I was coming down with something and I didn’t have any appetite to eat anything. So I had asked Chris to make me some congee. I always find myself eating congee when I can’t eat anything else.

Congee is good because it’s a clean food when it comes to how simple the ingredients are: rice and water. It can’t get any simpler than that. What you add to it are based on preference and there are a lot to choose from. Even I have so many different preferences when it comes to my rice congee.

There are many different types of congee and/or rice porridge. This one is just a simple congee.

The rice was boiled with 3 parts water ratio compared to the rice. So with 1 cup of uncooked rice boiled with 3 cups of water. No salt added or any seasoning when it was cooked. You can add chicken bouillon and ginger too. But with this one in the picture, the congee was made simple. Once it’s cooked, then that’s when I add seasoning. My go to seasoning and toppings for my congee is soy sauce and the Chinese dried pork floss, also called rousong. I sometimes like adding century egg too. Sometimes you can also add a bit of lime juice, a sprinkle of onion chives, and dab of fish sauce. You can always switch between soy sauce and fish sauce. But if you don’t like the color on your congee, you can always use salt.

ASL 05.13.2020 (Clearwater, FL)

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Growing Vegetables

Hello Spring! Since I have been placed on temporary furlough status, I have been doing some gardening. It is not yet time for harvest. I’m looking forward to get a taste of our home grown vegetables.

We are growing tomatoes, cabbages, onion and garlic, to name a few. I will try to share more photos for the rest next time.

ASL 05.11.2020 (Clearwater, FL)

A Delicious Sign of Hope

A small delicious sign of hope – our favorite Chinese Take Out place just recently reopened.

For weeks we have been checking constantly on when our favorite Chinese Take Out place would reopen. Not only that, but we also drove around the neighborhood if the other Chinese Take Out place are open. They weren’t. We saw about 3 different places closed.

Today Chris got home telling me, “I got good news for you. I think things are starting to go back to normal.” I replied with, “what made you say that? did they already come up with a vaccine?” Chris responded, “no.” I asked again, “did they find a cure?” Once again Chris answers with a firm, “no.” I stopped asking as I was really more guessing.

I went to the kitchen and found my answer. I see our usual order on the kitchen counter. I was surprised!

“You found a Chinese Take Out place open?”, I asked. He just nodded. “Or wait! Is this from our Chinese Take Out place that we normally go to?” Once again, he just nodded, but smiled this time. I ran to him with excitement and joy because finally we can normally order Chinese Take Out again!

This may seem silly to some. But we are one of those that value the little things in life. It may be little things for some but it can mean so much more for other people. What about you? What’s something so small and maybe silly to others but seems like a sign of the hope for you? Feel free to leave a comment below.

ASL 05.03.2020 (Clearwater, FL)