Zoe Li; photos by Luna Zhang

Congee, the ultimate comfort food

Rice provides more than one-fifth of the calories consumed by human beings across the globe, and China is one of the world’s largest producers. Small wonder, then, that the Chinese phrase chi fan (吃饭), which literally means “eating rice,”used to mean eating in general.

Common white rice is preferred by many people and is actually produced by polishing the grains. The seeds of the rice plant are milled using a rice huller to remove the outer husks of the grain. This allows each grain to keep fresh longer and to retain a soft texture, making it easier to digest.

Though white rice lacks certain essential nutrients (a diet that consists of little more than white rice would lead to beriberi, a thiamine deficiency disease) all rice – no matter its color – is a rich source of protein and essential amino acids when combined with beans, nuts and seeds.

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