Kaohsiung Seafood Congee

Kaohsiung seafood congee, hai xian zhou, is the defining comfort food of Kaohsiung, Taiwan's largest port and industrial city in the deep south, where the harbour's abundance of fresh seafood shaped the local diet. The dish is a clear, rice-thickened porridge, lighter than the thick Cantonese congee, in which the rice grains keep their shape, loaded generously with whatever is freshest from the harbour that morning, shrimp in the shell, slices of fish, clams, crab pieces, squid, sometimes scallops. A quick stock is made by simmering shrimp shells and fish bones, the seafood added in stages by cooking time so each stays tender, the rice added to thicken, and the bowl finished with ginger, white pepper and cilantro. Eaten as a warming late-night or breakfast meal from Kaohsiung's harbour-side and Qianzhen seafood stalls, the congee is a celebration of the port's catch, the clear broth and the variety of seafood the point. The southern-Taiwanese version is lighter and more seafood-forward than the northern style, the rice a backdrop rather than the star.

A clear, warming rice porridge loaded with sweet, just-cooked seafood, tender shrimp, briny clams, soft fish, the broth deeply savoury from the shells, warmed with ginger and white pepper. Comforting, light, the sea in a bowl.

The congee is built on a quick shellfish stock and staged seafood. Shrimp shells and heads, fish bones and water are simmered for 20 minutes to make a quick, deeply flavoured stock, strained. The rice is cooked in this stock with ginger until it softens and thickens slightly but the grains keep their shape, the Taiwanese style being lighter than the fully broken-down Cantonese congee. The seafood is then added in stages by cooking time, clams first to open, then fish slices and squid briefly, shrimp last for only a minute so it stays tender, the goal being that each is just cooked, not overdone. The clear, slightly thickened porridge is seasoned with salt and white pepper, finished with sesame oil, ginger matchsticks and chopped cilantro, and served hot. The generous ratio of seafood to rice is what makes it a seafood congee rather than a rice congee with seafood, and the use of the shell stock is the depth. The dish must be eaten at once, as the seafood toughens on standing.