Porridge is a staple food that Chinese people cannot give up. It can be sweet or salty, thick or thin, rich or poor, full or hungry. With thousands of years of history from ancient times to the present, who can compare with the Chinese people’s love for porridge? When it comes to porridge, you can’t go past Guangdong! Cantonese people firmly believe that a bowl of good porridge can maintain health, cure diseases and prolong life. Most families start their day with porridge as breakfast.

There are many types of porridge in Guangdong, from rich to poor, from elegant to vulgar. It is no exaggeration to say that whatever can be made into dumplings in the north can be cooked into porridge in Guangdong. So what are the favorite porridges of Cantonese people?

Chaoshan Casserole Porridge

Casserole porridge mainly has three elements: uncooked rice, strong fire, and fresh ingredients. Since Chaoshan people like to have clear rice grains when cooking porridge, the resulting rice porridge is not as mushy as Guangzhou white porridge. Friends from Chaoshan around me say that when eating casserole porridge, you must order shrimp and crab porridge. If you have not tried casserole porridge, it is recommended to order shrimp and crab porridge first. The fresh and sweet taste guarantees that you will not be disappointed.

Judging from the appearance, this pot of porridge is lively and fragrant. The plump crab claws, butter crab paste, prawn roe, and minced coriander are tumbling in the gulu~gulu bubbling porridge soup. Non-stop.

Shunde Wumi Porridge

Wumi Porridge Hot Pot is a hot pot that is combined with Guangdong Shunde porridge. It is a hot pot that uses high-quality fragrant rice carefully cooked for eight hours as the soup base. Say goodbye to it once and for all. The smell of traditional hot pot smoke. The porridge is thick, soft and white in color, and tastes sweet, with no grains of rice visible - this may be the origin of the name Wumi porridge.

The rice porridge has a high viscosity, which can fully lock in the nutrients and moisture of the food, so the cooked food is particularly tender and smooth, and the cooked seafood has no fishy smell. Rinse the fish and seafood first to ensure the freshness of the entire porridge base; then rinse the meat to give the porridge base a salty and fresh taste. Finally, add the vegetables and stir.

Yingde Leicha Porridge

In local rural areas, Leicha porridge is an indispensable treat for people to communicate with each other, entertain guests and friends, or celebrate weddings, commonly known as "half meal" . Leicha porridge is not made of tea and white rice as the name suggests. Instead, it uses tea leaves, ginger, small gourd, star anise, Chen Linpi, fennel and other ingredients, which are ground into powder and mixed with white porridge.

Many people, especially middle-aged and elderly people, have a special liking for it, almost to the point of saying "I would rather eat it without meat than eat it without porridge (Leicha porridge)". Leicha porridge has a long history, is made in different styles, and has certain health effects.

Qingyuan Zhouxin Big Porridge

Qingyuan Zhouxin people like to eat pig offal. Anyway, they eat it with porridge, so they simply cook the pig offal in warm porridge. Using pig offal as the main raw material, nine kinds of ingredients such as pork loin and pig heart are added into it. The portion is large and full of ingredients, and it retains the traditional flavor of the porridge.

In fact, the way to eat Zhou Xin Da Porridge was this way: bring your own pig offal, the store will provide the porridge and water, and leave everything to them. For a good bowl of Zhou Xin porridge, if you insert the chopsticks into the bowl and it can stand up without falling off, it means that the porridge is full of ingredients!

Dongguan Maogen Porridge

Maogen Porridge is a specialty porridge in Wanyi. If you are not in Dongguan, you may rarely eat this kind of porridge. Dongguan also applied for it to be a provincial intangible cultural heritage, which shows that its status in Guangdong porridge is extraordinary.

In the past, every household in Dongguan's rural areas would cook grass root porridge, but it was difficult to find a good quality product. The reason was the decrease in grass root. Ingredients such as grass roots, polygonatum odorifera, water chestnuts, and soybeans are added to the rice to make porridge. The porridge tastes sweet and moisturizes the throat. These ingredients also have the function of clearing away heat and moisturizing the lungs. Therefore, most people in Dongguan believe that drinking grass root porridge is very beneficial.

Guangzhou Tingzai Porridge

Tingzai refers to the small boats of people on the water. It is named after they cook and sell porridge on the boat. Tingzi porridge is made of fresh shrimps, fish fillets, chopped green onions, shredded eggs, jellyfish, peanuts, floating skin, and fried dough stick crumbs. In Guangzhou, there is a saying that "if you haven't eaten Tingzi porridge, you haven't been to Guangzhou."

The famous Liwan Tingzai porridge was the first time I ate it at Huahui Laochang. It is recommended to eat porridge with laochang so that you can enjoy the authentic "Lao Guangzhou flavor". A good bowl of Tingzi porridge, even if you eat it to the bottom of the bowl, the residue and water will not separate, and it will still remain sticky. Fresh and smooth fish fillets, crispy peanuts, soft white porridge, soft yet crispy fried fish, three words, super good!

Why "congee" can occupy the first place among "congee, noodles and rice" is probably because of its "universality". Porridge has become a philosophy for Cantonese people. After all, the solution to all our problems can be summed up as: "If you have porridge, eat porridge, and if you have rice, eat rice."

”