Congee

Congee is generally understood to be a rice gruel, or porridge, eaten at breakfast, usually with other foods added for taste, texture, and/or interest. Historically, however, congees were made from many foods, including wheat, barley, sorghum, millet, tapioca, or even corn, sometimes mixed with rice, sometimes alone. Congees date from the Zhou Dynasty (about 1000 B.C.), when they were thick, softly cooked grain gruels, imaginatively flavored with such additions as pears, lily buds, chrysanthemums, ginger, ginseng, lotus, mint leaves, or sugarcane, as well as medicinal herbs.