Parritch

" '...Ay,' he continued, as soon as he had ousted me from the stool and spoon, 'they're fine, halesome food -- they're grand food, parritch.' He murmured a little grace to himself and fell to. 'Your father was very fond of his meat, I mind; he was a hearty, if not a good eater; but as for me, I could never do mair than pyke at food.' " -- RL Stevenson, Kidnapped chap. i.

Nasi sudah menjadi bubur -- Malay idiom ('rice has become porridge') referring to something which has been done and cannot be retracted.

The BBC Magazine Monitor has started a new series called Porridge Watch, to highlight instances of porridge being mentioned in the media, after an observation that porridge is mentioned more often in the press than one would expect (more than cornflakes, for instance). Some readers have written in with their own porridge observations, while the monitor staff have been busy with their own updates. Upon reading their observations, I too have been convinced that a conspiracy is afoot to promote porridge in the UK media. A fraternity of grain-wholesalers, perhaps, who wish to drive up the consumption of grains and cereals for some nefarious political purpose? Or the work of an evil biotechnologist who has seeded fields around the world with allergenic strains of oats and rice, hoping to cash in on a cure that only he possesses?

The word porridge itself ('parritch' is a variant) throws some clue on its method of preparation, having been derived from 'pottage', i.e. prepared in a pot. Various kinds of porridge exist, depending on the grain used to make it, and the wateriness of the preparation. Gruel, for instance, refers to thin, watery porridge. It isn't surprising then that the word gruel also refers to torture or punishment ('gruelling'). Congee, on the other hand, is thick and viscose, having been boiled until the rice grains break apart. Porridges can be sweet, such as the dessert pulut hitam, made from glutinous black rice boiled with sugar and topped off with coconut milk, or savoury, like Chinese congee. Aside from water, milk is also used to make porridge, e.g. in the oat porridge that was the staple food in Scotland. The high starch content of porridge, and its ease of cooking, makes it very convenient for the cook and the consumer: it doesn't require elaborate effort, and it supplies abundant carbohydrates. Its soft, semisolid consistency makes it easy to eat, and partly explains its being fed to both very young children and very old people.

The above might serve to explain why porridge might become popular again: its versatility makes it an excellent base recipe on which to pile elaborations and additions, its reputation as poor-man's simple food is antithetical to highly-processed and industrially-complicated food choices that the modern consumer is inundated with, while its history might invoke wistful nostalgia of simpler times past or happy childhoods bespattered with lumpy porridge. Who knows, it might just be the next bubble tea.