On 11/22/2022 at 9:31 PM, KennethT said:Interesting timing - I was just having a conversation about rice porridge and the names for it. Is zhou different from congee? Is congee the Cantonese name? I've also heard the word congee used by Taiwanese (admittedly on the airplane when I used to fly EVA to Asia) when speaking to English speakers - I don't know what they called it in Taiwanese.
Congee, also spelled conjee or conji is actually an Indian word. It comes from the Tamil word 'kanji' meaning the water the rice was boiled in. It was borrowed into English in the 17th century, possibly via Portuguese. I'd guess the Taiwanese you heard using 'congee' picked it up from English.
Congee in its modern meaning and 粥 - zhōu are the same. Zhou is also used in Taiwan - most Taiwanese use Mandarin, but it is muê (糜) in Taiwanwese and may have yet other names in other native dialects.
It is 'jook' in Cantonese - 'zuk1' in jyutping transliteration.