What Is Congee?

Before we met Junie, our guide informed us that most of the babies would be on a diet of very thick formula mixed with rice cereal a couple of times a day and congee once or twice a day. Okay, I've heard of formula and rice cereal. I wasn't sure how to mix it, but I figured that John or I could figure it out. It had to be mixed to a milkshake consistency. Weird, but doable. But, congee? What was that?

Congee is basically a salty rice soup. You can get it with different kinds of meat, eggs, or veggies mixed in. It tastes pretty good to adults and the babies love it. If you get the meat congee, the meat is too large for the babies to eat, so you have to scoop it out. With the egg and veggie congee, there are small pieces of egg yolk that can be broken apart so that the babies can eat it. Our guide told us to get pork or beef congee, but June's orphanage reported feeding her egg congee. We tried them all, but decided to get the egg as we figured that June would get more protien that way.

We've been able to get take out congee every day from a local rice and noodle restaurant for only 4 yuan (50 cents). The first time we went to the restaurant to get congee, it must have been rush hour. Every table was full and there was a long line at the order counter. We didn't realize that no one spoke english until it was our turn to order. We knew to order congee, but didn't know that there were more than ten choices of what kind. Fortunately, one of the other waitresses brought over a menu that had both chinese and english on it and we were able to order. Now that we've been over there every day, it is much easier.