Thick congee with spareribs simmers in a clay pot as a hand lifts a ladleful with a wooden spoon, a blue-and-white bowl beside it holds river snails in clear broth, and a dish of pickles and a porcelain spoon lie nearby.
Congee and thick soup
Introduction
Congee boiled from rice, and thick soups.
Congee and thick soups cover congee boiled from rice or other grains, and soups, eaten as breakfast or as a dish. The Song book Meng Liang Lu of Lin'an records five-flavour meat congee and seven-treasure vegetarian congee sold in winter, and clear snail soup at night stalls. Li Yu of the Qing, in the Xian Qing Ou Ji, says the water for congee must be added in full at once and not topped up. The Li ji, in the Tan Gong chapter, says that thin and thick congee are the food that reaches from the Son of Heaven down, and the Nei Ze has the thick gruel and the meat-and-rice mixture. Sweet soups served as sweets have a class of their own, and rice and the grain itself belong to Rice.