Some of the best Southern Chinese food in the Northeast can be found north of the border, in the city of Toronto in Ontario, Canada. My mom, sister and I took a short trip up to Toronto to visit some relatives. While we were there, we spent one day downtown to explore the city. First stop, Chinatown. As we wandered through the unfamiliar streets, we passed by stalls selling Chinese herbs and vegetables. Unsure of where to go, we stopped by a shopkeeper to ask for a recommendation on for a place to get breakfast, specifically where we could find a good bowl of congee. “Just down the street, House of Gourmet has everything,” was his reply.
So we took his suggestion and started off our early morning with a big bowl of preserved egg and pork loin congee with a side of you tiao, a salty Chinese donut, from . When he said “they have everything”, he wasn’t lying. The vast menu at House of Gourmet had a total of 426 menu items, and in the congee section alone there were 45 variations. Of the 45 variations of congee offered at the House of Gourmet, the contents mixed into the congee ranged from seafood, such as crab, abalone, and lobster, to more daring options such as pig’s blood pudding and other delectable offals.
Preserved egg and pork loin congee
You tiao
Congee is a soupy rice porridge with multifarious permutations depending on what part of Asia you are in. Chinese congee, also called “jook”, is generally eaten during two occasions, either for breakfast or when you are sick–think of it as a Chinese equivalent to chicken soup. As a child, my mother would cook up a batch of plain congee as a remedy to settle my upset stomach, while other times we’d have congee for breakfast and mix in various condiments, side dishes, and sometimes some of the leftovers from the night before. Traditionally, the Cantonese version is a bit more watery and boiled through than congee from other regions of China. Other regional variations use different ratios of water and rice and sometimes even substitute or mix the rice with other grains.
To prepare congee, boil rice several times until it breaks down into a soupy, viscous consistency. This can be done simply with a big pot or a rice cooker. Check back shortly for a tutorial on homemade congee, but for now, you can go savor some here:
The House of Gourmet
484 Dundas Street West
Toronto, Ontario M5T 1G9
(416)217-0167
And if you’re in New York, try:
Congee Village (Allen)
100 Allen Street
New York, NY 10002
(212) 941-1818
Congee Village (Bowery)
207 Bowery
New York, NY 10002
(212) 766-2828
