Porridge

"Dun wan already," I said, as I pushed my plate of porridge away.

My godma comes over and looks at the leftovers. "Finish your porridge la, its full of nutrients, better than what you can get outside."

"Dun wan, 婆婆 everyday cook the same porridge, so boring."

"I said, finish it!"

And so I did, unwillingly, leaving behind bits of porridge here and there on the plate and hoping that nobody was going to make me clean it all up.



That exchange was probably in 1991-1993, my kindergarten years, where I was old and spoilt enough to grumble about the sameness of food everyday. (And when my godma was still working shifts in A&E)

As I grew older, I stopped caring about the fact that the porridge nearly always contained cabbage, pork, fishcake and prawns. And sometimes fish! Occasionally there'd be pig intestine or peanuts, and I would be most happy and eat up more than my share of food. Or if there was seaweed, ew. And then I started having lessons before/after school, so lunch was occasionally from the school canteen. Then secondary school hit, and with the fact that classes ended at 2.05pm and I'd be faint with hunger by the time I reached grandma's house at 3pm or later, I stopped having lunch at home altogether. And so time passed, my grandma left us, and I entered university.

On my first visit to Montreal, I stared at the rice cooker and the word 粥 on it. Since I was preparing food and I had free rein over all his food supplies in the fridge (which included cabbage, prawns and minced pork), why couldn't I try to recreate my childhood staple? The colour of the porridge looked really pale, and tasted weird too. I closed my eyes to recall how the grub looked like when I stared at it once and suddenly the memory of her pouring Kikkoman soy sauce into the rice cooker of porridge came back to me.

"Eee 婆婆你说这个不能吃太多， then 你放这样多！"
"哪里有！"

Black flecks. Pepper.

And it tasted good! Heehee.


Now its the effort-requiring dish I cook most often. I cook enough for 3 lunches, then store the remaining 2 meals for later microwaving. Its my comfort food.