粥 or 稀饭 Chinese Congee or Rice Soup

粥 zhou1 or 稀饭 xi1 fan4, Chinese congee or rice soup has long history too in immense kinds by just adding a bit or a lot of different ingredients when cook. Many surrounding Asian countries also follow this type of 粥 in cooking. For example, Japan has typical congee called 中華粥 zhong1 hua2 zhou1, literally "central China congee", meaning Chinese congee. In China people actually distinguish rice soups or congees in major two by way of cooking (length, high or low heat) with the quantity of rice: 稀粥 xi1 zhou1/稀饭 xi1 fan4 or 浓粥 nong2 zhou1/稠稀饭 chou2 xi1 fan4, meaning gruel or porridge. Chinese people further add side ingredients including herbs or medicine herbs etc. to make variety of rice soups each named differently based on either 稀粥 gruel, or 浓粥 porridge. 粥 or 稀饭 is representative of the southern Chinese meal originally from ancient, by using rice as a major ingredient, and using 米 mi3 "rice" as the main structure in the middle of the Chinese character 粥.