More Plain Congee

No MSG in this plain congee

Plain Congee (with extra spring onions and fried bread bits)
$8 ($4 per bowl)
CityU Canteen

While waiting in the chow line one morning, I overhead one of the canteen staff tell another customer that all the congee save for the plain congee were doused with MSG.  And then this revelation hit me like a tin to the head: small wonder the other congees in the canteen as well as the (best) plain congee in Hong Kong were so delicious: they themselves were drowning in flavor enhancer, and no more stood on their own original merits than a professional athlete relies on his own physique for performance; MSG is a food steroid!

Indeed, to test this hypothesis, I ordered these two bowls of plain congee and without the chemical enhancement of MSG, they truly tasted like insipid, clear soup with rudiments of vegetable and starch in them.  MSG, therefore, it goes without saying, makes everything in the bowl, from the spring onions to the rice grains, taste better!