Congee, You're My Baby

A couple of years ago, a good friend of mind had likened eating a bowl of congee to something as comforting as coming home.
Now, for those of you who don't know, congee (pronounced "con-jee") is a porridge dish consisting of mainly rice (usually a mixed ratio of glutinous and long grain) and whatever kind of stock the cooker wishes to boil it in. And depending on how it's boiled, the porridge itself can be either gelatinous or runny; I myself prefer the latter.
To this day, I still bare in mind what my friend said with the same amount of conviction as I did the day I first heard him say it - that same day I made the spiciest congee we had ever eaten, and that same day my friend was demanding glass after glass of milk, of all things, to drink.
I'm still trying to make a good bowl of congee. It has a strange duality. On one hand, it can be extremely comforting, and on the other, it can be bland and taste old, riddled with some strange ingredient like thousand year old eggs, making its flavour almost metallic (if that means anything to anyone but me). The same friend who introduced me to congee sometimes says it's something for old people, like dumplings and tofu. Other times, he's ecstatic at being able to have it; I suppose when it gives him (and all of us) the comfort he (and we) sometimes seek.
I often find myself looking for something these days, more often than not, in a bowl of congee, whenever I'm by some hole-in-the-wall, or even at my own place of work. Yup, if you ask me, congee definitely shares some of that strange duality with life: good one minute - not so good the next. Luckily, there're things that help us muck through it all, one way or the other, whether it's a bowl of gluey congee, or a generally good disposition.
I'm 24 years old, a recent grad school dropout and someone, like everyone, who's looking for something else, if they haven't already found it. More importantly though, I'm someone who genuinely loves food, and knows how wonderful it can be to cook for someone who really needs it.
Food's not my whole life, but it certainly is a big part of it, and if there's something that helps me through the day, food is certainly it, as I'm sure it is for many of you as well.
I don't know where I'm going, but I'm sure I'm on my way. And no matter what the world is like, at least there's always a good bowl of congee - or a bad one. What's important is that it's there.

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