It doesn’t matter what you name it — congee, jook, xi fan, chao, lugaw or one other identify — nothing says consolation like a steaming sizzling bowl of meltingly-soft, savory rice porridge. Rising up in San Francisco, I’ve fond reminiscences of visiting Chinatown on weekend mornings, generally sharing household breakfasts of wonton noodle soup; tang jai jook (aka sampan porridge, named after the boats the place fishermen as soon as made it), a seafood-laden mixture with peanuts, shrimp, dried squid, inexperienced onions, and different tasty pork-y morsels); gup dai jook (a basic mixture of pork offal elements); preserved egg (generally known as 1,000-year-old egg) and pork jook; and lengthy, crisp fried youtiao, the donut-like fried dough, that you could order minimize into skinny rounds to drop into your porridge. My household all the time favored to get them entire, and we’d pull them aside into jagged items to drop into our bowls.
Although not fancy banquet meals, it was satisfying and scrumptious in its personal proper. Jook doesn’t problem your mind or sometimes, ask you to ponder its flashiness in model or execution (though I’m certain there will be a $72 version soon). That is meals that comforts and holds you want a heat blanket on a chilly, foggy day. Some swear by it as a treatment for colds and hangovers. Whereas I’m unsure if jook counts as drugs, I do know {that a} contemporary bowl of congee has some type of magical therapeutic property that all the time manages to assuage my soul.
The place are you able to get jook/congee within the East Bay? We’ve listed among the area’s most intriguing choices under, however that is not at all a complete information to each nice congee spot within the East Bay. Please share your favourite locations within the feedback!
In Uptown Oakland, Lion Dance Cafe serves up plant-based jook
Since it opened last fall, Lion Dance has been a fixture on most native “finest eating places” lists. The previous pop-up serves up its “genuine, not conventional” vegan Singaporean-Italian meals within the evenings Wednesday by way of Saturday (notice that service is walk-up and takeout solely). Its Teochew congee, served with fried shallots, scallions, chili oil, and seasonal toppings, is offered at brunch, served each second Sunday from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Lion Dance Cafe, 380 seventeenth St. (close to Franklin Road), Oakland.
In Oakland’s Chinatown, Gum Kuo’s breakfast particular is difficult to beat
Like every good Cantonese Chinese language deli, Gum Kuo proclaims its bona fides with roast duck, its richly lacquered caramel-colored pores and skin glistening within the window. This restaurant and take-out counter does a brisk enterprise promoting roasted and BBQ meats in addition to an array of Cantonese consolation meals dishes. Gum Kuo, like Daimo, is a “jook, enjoyable, mein” place — recognized for contemporary and quick meals, characterised by these carb-centric crowd-pleasing dishes (though each additionally serve family-style dinner dishes as effectively). At Gum Kuo, strive the preserved egg and pork porridge. There’s additionally a breakfast particular, accessible from 7:30-10:30 am, that features a bowl of plain jook, youtiao, and easy stir-fried noodles for $7.50. Gum Kuo, 388 ninth St. #182 (inside Pacific Renaissance Plaza), Oakland. (510) 268-1288
Mushrooms are the star at Oakland’s The Effectively Natural Kitchen
Vegans and vegetarians also can look to Oakland’s The Effectively for a takeout congee repair. Impressed by easy vegetarian congee, which is continuously plain rice porridge topped with an array of vegetarian toppings of various flavors and textures, the restaurant supplies three choices. There’s an natural vegetarian Breakfast Congee, topped with a tea-brined egg, peanuts, pickled carrots, cilantro, tamari, and sesame oil, in addition to two vegan selections, one with five-spiced tofu, pickled carrots, and arugula and one other with roasted shiitake mushrooms and turmeric-braised daikon. The Well Organic Kitchen, 5443 Telegraph Ave. (close to fifty fifth Road), Oakland.
Try the Hong Kong classics at Richmond’s Daimo Chinese language Restaurant
This Cantonese restaurant, positioned simply north of the central mall constructing within the Pacific East complicated close to the Central Avenue I-80 exit, serves all of the Hong Kong classics, starting from jook and dumpling soups to fried rice and crispy pan-fried HK-style chow mein, in addition to a full rice plate and a la carte dinner/lunch menu. There are greater than 20 congee selections on their menu. The sampan jook right here, billed in English as “assorted meat and seafood congee,” is savory and comforting. You may also discover quite a lot of rooster, fish, pork, and beef choices. Spherical out your meal with an order of their terrific shrimp and pork gained ton soup, housemade BBQ meats, and stir fried pea shoots or gai lan, Chinese language broccoli. Daimo Chinese Restaurant, 3288 Pierce St. (within the Pacific East Buying Mall), Richmond. (510) 527-3888
