Standard foods included bread, porridge, and gruel. Congee is a type of rice porridge or gruel popular among Malaysia's ethnic communities. These were consumed as bread, porridge, gruel and pasta by all of society's members. It was also boiled down for syrup or mixed with maize to make nourishing gruel. Upon return it is once again a dinner of cornbread, corn gruel, and vegetable soup. Breakfast is a bowl of rice gruel with pickles. The menu includes items such as cornmeal cakes and rice gruel. Usually it is lightly sauteed and eaten along with rice or rice gruel. This was made by allowing cooked rice or rice gruel to ferment naturally. Boiled rice (koolu) and rice gruel (kanjee) formed the staple food of the Kodavas. Eggs can be beaten into it to thicken it into gruel. It was a barley gruel, to which water and herbs were added. Barley meal gruel is known as "sawiq" in the Arab world. It may be used as a weak gruel for invalids. In Asian zoos, a diet of mostly gruel and bread is fed to pandas.