Our Taste of Home: Jook

By Pauline Tze

On cold winter evenings or when soreness lingers in my throat, my mom always makes me a bowl of steaming hot jook (粥), Chinese rice porridge. Savory and creamy, jook warms me from head to toe, leaving me with feelings of comfort and contentment.

image from Chinese Cooking Demystified, YouTube

To my mom, jook means home. It reminds her of days when the family was too poor to afford anything more than rice. A small handful of rice went a long way in feeding everyone’s bellies. She and her sister would simmer a large pot of rice and water for hours before adding salt. The rice would slowly break down with time and expand in volume, providing a nutritious, easily digestible meal. It was a simple way to make enough food for the entire family. From the young ones to the elderly, jook was comforting to for everyone.

These days, my mom likes to boil pork with rice and garnish with pei daan (皮蛋) and spring onions. Pei daan are also known as thousand-year-old eggs, and contain a rich, pungent grey to greenish yolk with jelly-like whites that have turned a dark brown. While toppings make the jook heartier and can be varied depending on the day, the rice base of the jook itself provides us the taste of home.