The place is in the food court of a wet market and is renowned for its congee. Fortunately we arrived early and there weren't many customers around. Vivian ordered congee with grass carp slice and meat ball, mine with beef and grass carp belly.
Quite a perfect lunch in a hot summer.
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The best type of congee, in my opinion, is the "plain" one.
I put quotation marks around plain because white congee (白粥) by taste is, paradoxically, not plain in terms of cookery. To give the sensation of a pure rice and water mixture, you have to add a few ginkgo - alternatives are oatmeal, tofu skin, century egg, dried oyster, or dried scallop.
It has always been my puzzle in chemistry what's in common in all these seemingly different ingredients. All I could tell is they all serve to take away that trace of funny taste when plain rice is heated with boiling water.
But, the idea is universal. If something appears pure and flawless, it got to be artificial.
As Philo Vance said: Nothing perfect is natural or genuine.
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