A big bowl full of comfort

For some people, it's the rich, creaminess of mac n' cheese; for others it might be the refreshing crunch of milk and cereal; but for me, I find comfort in a steaming bowl of xi fan, or rice porridge. Yes, it might be mushy and yes, relatively bland, but there is so much more to it. It's having that warming and mellow aroma of rice tickling your senses and all the delightful tiny dishes of pickled spicy veggies to accompany it. At home, my mom likes to make plain rice porridge with jasmine white rice, but I prefer it when she mixes it with other grains like barely, cornmeal and millet to give it more bite and a nutty edge. However, on occasion she'll make a savory rice porridge made with pi dan, 1000-year old egg.

That's right, 1000-year old egg, otherwise known as preserved duck egg. Non-chinese people are probably disgusted at the thought, but let me tell you -- this stuff has been eaten throughout chinese history and is enjoyed by us even today! Preserved duck egg is made by coating the egg with a clay-like plaster of red earth, lime, wood ash, salt and tea and aged for 100 days (I think the 1000-year is just a name in good fun).

Yes, that is exactly what it looks like. The yolk is a creamy gray and the "whites" become a barely translucent blackish amber. How does it taste? Well, it's hard to describe really. I would say it has the richness and texture of an avocado, but, well, eggy. This stuff should not be eaten just as a hard-boiled egg, but should be incorporated with other ingredients like tofu or meat or what I made today -- rice porridge.

I called my mom to ask her how to make this the other day, and it's actually quite easy. I like to use cooked rice because it speeds up the cooking time considerably. Traditionally, one would use white rice to make it, but I'm a brown rice freak so I prefer the mixed brown rice. My mom also said that it tastes best when you have both the pi dan and some thinly sliced lean meat. I've had it with roasted duckmeat before, which is probably the best you can get, but lean pork is great too. Also make sure that the meat is seasoned before hand with soysauce, sugar, rice wine and five spice powder. I went rice-happy the other day and cooked too much, so I used about 2 cups of rice and cooked it in 8 cups of liquid. 7 cups of that liquid was water and 1 cup was chicken broth. I let the pot of porridge cook for 30 minutes and added the diced egg and meat and simmered for another 15 minutes. I then served it up with some leftover leafy greens I had in the fridge. Yum!

I'm not going to put up the recipe just because I have a feeling it's a little to "out-there" for ya'll especially with the "strange" eggs. But if you want it, I would be happy to share it with you if I'm asked.