Congee, Kanji, Jook, Juk, Etc. — A Well-Traveled Food and Its Well-Traveled Names

Hi there, you have A Way with Words.

Hi there, this is Norman.

Hi Norman, where are you calling from?

I’m calling from Oakland, California.

Hi Norman, welcome to the show. What can we do for you?

Well, I have a question. I recently made something called Jok, J-O-O-K, which is also called Konfit, Kanji.

And I was wondering if the word congeal originated from Kanji or vice versa.

So is the word kanji originating from Asia or vice versa?

All right.

You’re going to have to describe this dish so that people get a better clue why you think they might be related besides the sound.

Kanji is rice boiled for at least three hours, and it creates a porridge.

But the porridge, if left to cool, it congeals.

And you can technically make paste out of it, to tell you the truth.

Right, put up wallpaper.

You definitely could.

So congee was originally, for a long time, the name for this dish.

It’s C-O-N-G-E-E.

You used both the old pronunciation and the new one, which makes me think that you’re familiar with the more modern spelling as well, which is K-A-N-J-I, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the Japanese writing system.

And you also called it Juk, which is either spelled J-O-O-K or J-U-K.

So three different names for this same dish.

So to answer your first question, no.

The word congealed is completely unrelated to the word kanji or kanji.

Completely unrelated. It’s just a coincidence. And I could see why you might think that because congealed kind of looks like congee.

And the way you might be confused is congealed is related to the French word congele, which is the past participle of congele, which means to freeze.

But there’s an L in there and it shares a Latin root with words like gel and gelatin and jelly and gelato.

But let’s explore a little bit this dish because the reason it has so many names is because it is known throughout Asia and much of the world.

It’s called kayu in Japanese, kenda or kanda in Sri Lanka.

That juke name, it originally was Cantonese, which has been borrowed into other Chinese dialects and into Thai and also into Hawaii, where you’re more likely to hear called or druk than your kanji or anything else.

And the word kanji comes from Tamil.

It was originally a word from India.

And variations on that word exist in most Indian languages.

And then English speakers got a hold of the food and the word in the 1600s, borrowed it into English, and never looked back.

What’s really interesting to me is that the word kanji is still used in English, but the only thing it has in common with dishes of that same name in Asia is rice.

A lot of times they’re very different dishes, just incredibly different dishes.

Well, that’s good to know.

And that’s also good to know that there was an association between the Indians and the Chinese, because I know their two cultures combined greatly.

Yeah, yeah. Even now, as two powers who are sometimes in political conflict and culture, they have a lot of back and forth.

And I think historically, the ping pong of food and religion and literature and all that kind of stuff has been a real nice addition to the world.

I think the way the two pass things, good ideas back and forth between each other.

So, Norman, how did it turn out?

It was actually perfect, but you have to trust, because we generally don’t cook rice for five hours or three hours.

Three hours is what it was. And you can get, out of one cup of rice, you can get quite a big pot of congee, which is, I mean, a full pot. You can get a couple of quarts.

So it’s Chinese chicken soup, by the way, and you can add cilantro or some people add pork or chicken or a little bit of fish, but it is their chicken soup.

That is what they have when they don’t feel good or if it’s a cold day.

It’s amazing.

Thanks for your perceptive question.

We really appreciate it.

Well, I appreciate your show.

You guys are great.

Keep up the good work.

Oh, it’s our pleasure.

Thanks so much, Norman.

Bye-bye.

Okay, bye now.

Bye.

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