h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My parents are from Hong Kong and I remember they used to eat congee (watery rice porridge) with shredded dried meat (pronounced "yook soong" in Cantonese) or Chinese sausage ("lap cherng") and pickled leeks or other pickled Chinese vegetables for breakfast. I haven't lived at home for a while so I don't know what they eat now.

And I remember my mother complaining once that when my grandmother, her mother-in-law, came to visit, she wanted to eat a full Chinese meal -- steamed rice, a couple of meat dishes, a couple of vegetable dishes -- for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.

Myself, I ate dry cereal with milk every single day until I graduated from school (I grew up in Brampton, Ontario). We were permitted to alternate between one healthy cereal (Cheerios, Rice Crispies, Corn Flakes, Shreddies, Shreaded Wheat, Quaker Oat Squares...) and one sugary cereal (Honeycombs, Alphabits, Count Chocula...).

Upon reaching adulthood, I developed a lactose intolerance (or something -- maybe it was just working full-time that made me sick in the mornings). I now eat a toasted bagel or Eggo waffles (plain) and an orange or orange juice for breakfast every day.

Indigo S.

Hey Indigo !

Our fates seem to be moving in opposite directions...
As a French citizen now living in Asia (Taiwan), I've had my share of exposure to congee...

I must admit that I haven't gotten quite around that part of my acclimatation yet : for me, breakfast has to be mostly sweet, bread and butter, tea or coffee, jam, honey, marmelade... You know, Frenchies have a sweet tooth...

But when going out during the week-end, partying very late as we sometimes do, it is indeed very nice to drop by the local breakfast restaurant as it opens, on our way back from some disco, for the ideal very-late-snack : congee !
It is easy to digest, comes with a large variety of seasonnings and side dishes, and is, at that time of the night, an alltogether quite enjoyable experience !

It is now such a trend that there even are some of these congee restaurant that open 24 hours !