Malaysia - Day 5

On the very first day when I arrived, the breakfast buffet in the hotel had a dish labeled "fish congee" that caught my eye - not because of it's beauty but because it looked like oatmeal and the title had "fish" in it and it was breakfast time. I'll admit it shook me a little bit. Here I was less than a day into my trip, determined to try just everything, and I couldn't face the congee.

I passed that day, thinking it would be on the buffet everyday and I could build up to it. But as I approached the cauldron hosting the stuff every morning it was filled with other kinds of congee, plain or chicken, which both sound much less daunting.

Patience happened and today I tried fish congee. Congee is just overcooked rice that is a little soupy. Toss in fish and fish sauce and you have, you guessed it, fish congee. There were chunks of fish, which wasn't the most pleasant, but in general the congee has little flavorful - after all it is just rice. Sticking with the oatmeal analogy, there are a variety of toppings to dress it up. Most of the toppings I selected (green onion, fried onion, these things that looked like puff pastry, and soy sauce) did the job quite well. I say "most" because that egg was the worst thing I've had since being here. It is a duck egg that is prepared by storing it in salt for 1 to 2 months then hard boiling it. It ends up being super salty and very tough. I wasn't expecting that, and I popped the whole thing in my mouth! Yuck!

I'm no longer afraid of congee but I'll think twice about eating anything that is appears like a hard boiled egg again.