#jook

Folded by DJ Schreach (2025, Jook/SoFlo Jook)

I smashed garlic, sliced ginger, and roughly chopped the white part of scallions

then I sauteed them in the pot with sesame oil, salt, black pepper, and white pepper until they had a lot of color

then I toasted the rice in the pot for a few min, until it was toasty

then I added the water and broth and let it cook for an hour, then thicken for 20 min

add sliced green part of the scallion, soy sauce, vinegar, mirin, med boiled egg/silken tofu on top and it's so SO good

peak sick guy food

My partner was sick and working from home, so I decided to make a big pot of jook (粥, congee). It took a bit longer than expected so he came down to see how it was going.

"Almost ready," I said. Then suddenly recalled, "A homonym for jook (粥, congee) is jook (捉)," and I made a sort of clasping motion, "which means, like, to kidnap?"

I searched around my brain to try to remember how jook (捉) was used.

"You would jook (捉) a bug," I said, pantomiming, "So maybe, 'catch'? But you wouldn't jook (捉) a ball, I don't think, unless you also stole it, like if you intercepted it from the other team. Hm. You could jook (捉) a child, you could jook (捉) a criminal."

"How about 'grab'?" my partner offered.

"Yeah, maybe. But, you wouldn't jook (捉) your purse on the way out the door..."

"'Capture', or 'seize'?"

"Yeah! But, I don't know if you can jook (捉) an enemy fortification. But you could jook (捉) their troops. Maybe it's a kinda slangy word?"

We tenuously settled on the "kidnap" interpretation.

"Well, it's almost ready, so I will jook you soon," I said ambiguously to him.

"Ooh, then we can have a congee-gal visit."

*groan*

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For completeness, here's what Cantodict says about jook (捉):

捉 zuk1 zuk3

[1] grasp; seize hold of; clutch [2] catch; capture; apprehend; arrest