White woman making 'improved' congee apologizes

The company, which sells pre-packaged meals it had referred to as congee, issued the apology in a statement on its website this week after it was criticized by many across social media for exoticizing the comfort food and trying to reframe the already-popular dish. It had previously claimed to have altered congee to fit “your modern palate” and “improve” a dish that’s been beloved by Asian cultures for centuries.

“Recently, we fell short of supporting and honoring the Asian American community and for that, we are deeply sorry,” the statement said. “We take full responsibility for any language on our website or in our marketing and have taken immediate steps to remedy that and educate ourselves, revising our mission to not just creating delicious breakfast meals, but becoming a better ally for the AAPI community.”

Asian Americans had taken issue with several aspects of the company, including how the staff did not appear to include employees of Asian descent and how Taylor, an acupuncturist and self-proclaimed “Queen of Congee,” had written a now-edited post titled, “How I discovered the miracle of congee and improved it.”

Congee remains a staple for Asians, with different versions cooked by nearly every country across the continent. The word congee itself has Tamil roots. It’s largely regarded as a comfort food, and in the Chinese tradition, it’s often served at dim sum with flavors like thousand-year-old-egg and pork, or duck. Taylor’s version includes flavors like apple cinnamon and uses ingredients like oat groat.

In its statement, Breakfast Cure, founded in 2017, referred to its meal packs as “Oregon porridge,” rather than congee as it had previously been calling them. It also said that its products, which include ingredients and flavors that bear little resemblance to the original dish, was “inspired” by traditional rice congee, “an incredible, healing dish with references dating back to 1,000 BC.”

Profoundly unfair to make this woman apologize for improving congee while giving a free pass to every shitty "fusion" sushi place that wants to charge me $20 for mayonnaise and avocado wrapped in rice.