Rice Porridge (Congee) with Preserved Duck Egg & Pork (Pi Dan Shou Rou Zhou)

When I was knee-high to a grasshopper, I used to call these ebony-hued & ghoulish green-centered duck productions "Thousand-Year-Old Eggs." Not a diss, but simply the moniker that was passed down to me by the family elders. I have to admit I absolutely abhorred the taste of this seeming abomination of nature throughout my formative years. My grandma would always serve these eggs as an appetizer for Chinese New Year, and I always had to find a way to pretend that I ate them. But who was I to judge, since I also had the extremely poor taste back then to despise anything that remotely emoted onion - e.g., bulb onions, scallions, chives, etc., etc. As a reformed adult, however, with more mature tastes, I grew to like not only onions of every ilk, but also this spectacular, eggtacular delight for its culinary merits. Gotta admit, though, I still hate that other childhood pet peeve of mine: sea cucumber...

Congee is basically a rice porridge and comes in many iterations. It can be made plain, with seafood, pork, or other meats. This version is quite common and well-known to the Chinese palate. I don't know its exact origin (I don't believe it's Taiwanese, as we've always eaten just plain congee at home and I never had this until I came to LA), but I've concocted by own version over the years and think it's good eats.