For many years, congee has suffered the misfortune of being known in English as 'rice gruel'.
It's not the kindest of translations for this big bowl of Asian comfort food.
This savoury rice porridge can be eaten at any time of day, and is starting to appear with some surprising mutations.
Never had it before? Let us walk you through the basics.
Lesson one: How to eat congee
Eating out:
- For first-timers, yum cha is a great place to try congee. Take your pick from preserved duck egg and pork congee, fish congee, and even crab or abalone congee — all topped with ginger, shallots and crispy fried wonton bits.
- There are two ways of having congee. There's Thai-style congee where the bowl has everything already mixed into it (like at yum cha). Or plain 'white' congee which you can have as a late-night snack with a range of toppings and sides.
- Cafes are now serving congee with a twist, but we'll get to that in a second.
At home:
- Congee makes a great base for what you have at home. Add a flavourful leftover and voila — ham hock congee on Boxing Day?
- Keep it nourishing with Hetty McKinnon's brown rice, kale and chili oil version.
- Try it out as baby food. "It's the first thing that most cultures give their babies to eat, and very few people are allergic to rice, unlike gluten," says Palisa Anderson, a chef who owns a popular restaurant in Sydney's Thai Town.
- Or use it in place of chicken soup. "Plain white congee makes a great 'sick supper' if you're not feeling well," says Ms Anderson.
Toppings and side dishes:
- Season with soy sauce and white pepper; or chilli, vinegar and soy sauce; or even a few dots of Maggi sauce or a swirl of Bovril or Vegemite for that extra umami taste.
- Fried dough sticks are a classic choice, and good for extra crunch.
- Ms Anderson suggests cracking a gooey egg into really hot congee, especially at breakfast.
- Try it with meat. Adam Liaw, cookbook author and host of Destination Flavour, suggests pork meatballs with a finishing touch of garlic and spring onion oil, with fresh spring onion too.
- Know that when it comes to congee, there are probably as many toppings as there are grains of rice in a single bowl.
Lesson two: When is congee not congee?
Is it still congee if it looks like this? You couldn't call this salmon congee with its cured yolk and seaweed rice 'gruel'. It's being sold at a cafe in Newtown, in Sydney's inner-west.
Ms Anderson, whose cafe serves up a bacon and egg congee, is pretty relaxed about what does and doesn't make the cut.
"Oh, if it tastes good, I don't care," she says, fresh from experimenting on congee with a three-meat ragu.
Meanwhile, Mr Liaw once saw a bowl of congee on Instagram with a big slab of braised pork belly on top.
"Pork belly is not congee to me. Obviously in terms of sheer culinary acceptability it's fine, but congee is not so much a feeling as a cultural touchstone," he says.
So, when is congee not congee anymore?
"When it's no longer something you want to eat when you're sick," Mr Liaw says.
In our Food Files series, ABC Everyday takes a close look at a seasonal dish every fortnight. From how we eat it, where to find it, and the best ways to enjoy it at home.