Foods To Eat When You Have a Cold

[JPW]

The Jamaican cook in my fraternity used to make REAL penicillan. He'd dry orange peels for you and then brew a *special* tea for you. Not quite sure what else he put in it.

Man, that stuff was great.

[FistFullaRoux]

Has anyone mentioned chicken soup yet?

Anything that isn't hard to chew or eat works for me. The last thing I want to deal with when I have a cold is buffalo wings. I mean, I know where my hands have been, and I may automatically scratch my nose without thinking.

Something in a bowl, with a spoon.

[Rebel Rose]

Another vote for chicken soup. I add garlic, tons of ginger, leeks and shitake mushrooms, with a squeeze of lime before serving. Ginger is an appetite stimulant and shitakes are very restorative.

Some of the other soups sound great, too, though, especially the hot tomato versions! I'll have to try making them next fall when our cold season hits, and we have plenty of preserved homegrown tomatoes.

[mikeycook]

Probably not the most typical thing, but I like to make a potato-leek soup for myself when I am sick. It is simple, tastes good, and it relatively easy to make if you don't want to spend too much time on your feet, plus I usually have all of the ingredients on hand.

I love Chicken-Matso Ball soup as well as other types of chicken soup, but when I am sick I am definitely ordering it rather than making it.

[WineMiles]

Whenever my wife or kids get sick, I make chicken soup for them. My wife swears it cures her everytime. In fact, she has had a lingering cough for the last few weeks and told me last night that she would be all better if I'd made some soup for her.

My chicken soup is pretty close to a gumbo in that I use a roux to thicken it and I make sure to carmelize all the tasty bits before I add the homemade roasted chicken stock to the pot. Served over fussili it will cure what ails ya'.

[clothier]

In addition to the chicken soup, buttered soda crakers.

and oatmeal, with raisins and toasted wlanuts.

most importantly, Vernor's Ginger Ale.

[RebeccaT]

For the past couple of years, I have been making a Chinese Cinnamon Beef Hot Pot. It just tastes so good when I'm sick! It's a long-simmering soup that makes the house smell amazing, and I serve it over udon noodles. I don't know about it's healing properties, but it certainly makes me feel better!

[Jensen]

Another vote for congee here. Oh, and I think that the next time I'm sick, I'd like Eunny Jang's mum to take care of me...

[Rachel Perlow]

I love Chicken-Matso Ball soup as well as other types of chicken soup, but when I am sick I am definitely ordering it rather than making it.

Ah, see the trick is to have concentrated chicken stock in the freezer, as well as the matzo balls. I cook them in salted water and put two portions at a time into freezer baggies. Add a a handful noodles, some sliced carrots and celery, simmer for 15 minutes et voila!

[Hiroyuki]

Thank you, everyone, for your very interesting, impressive, and informative posts!

I'm impressed with all of your recommendations, but I think I prefer chicken soup. I don't go for spicy food even when I am healthy, nor do my wife and children. Since I can't make chiken soup readily enough, I think that instant chicken noodles are a good substitute. I always have a stock of them at home.

I, for one, like to have canned mandarin orange (mikan) when I am sick. When I was a child, my mother always bought a can for me.

[Hiroyuki]

How is Okayu different from Zousui?

I like Zousui a lot.

We have three very similar terms:

おかゆ okayu

雑炊 zosui

おじや ojiya

Most Japanese use these terms in their own way, including me. They are used almost interchangeably.

I searched for the exact definitions of these terms (which means that I didn't know anything about their difference!)

okayu: Made by boiling uncooked rice

zosui: A dish made by mixing previously cooked rice and other ingredients with broth

ojiya: Made by adding previously cooked rice to what is left of a nabe (Japanese dish using a pot)

But, there is another theory:

According to one source, ojiya has the same meaning as zosui, but was used by a certain type of women called nyobo (女房) at royal court.

[Toasted]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned miso soup. It's the only thing I can stomach when I'm really sick.

[purplewiz]

One more for the chicken soup camp here . But it specifically has to be Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup in the regular can - because that's what Mom used to feed us when we were sick. I think my body is now trained to feel better when it gets that distinctive taste.

The soup is accompanied by peanut butter crackers - again, specifically Skippy Creamy on Premium Saltines or Ritz crackers - and again, because that's what Mom used to serve.

If we were really, REALLY sick, we got cinnamon sugar toast along with weak tea with milk and sugar.

When I'm on the way to recovery, it's out for Thai and Tom Kha Gai, like many others - with extra heat and lime juice. I wonder if it's the vitamin C in the lime that does the trick - with the help of the sinus-clearing spice.

Marcia.

[Majra]

When I'm sick I like any version of chicken soup, from Mom's chicken and rice to Campbell's to congee. The most medicinal version, though, seems to be a caldo de pollo as taught to me by my Mexican friend, Judith. To make, boil large chunks of carrot, cabbage, potatoes, and tomatoes together with skinless (but still on the bone) chicken legs and cilantro stems, and water or stock. To serve, spoon a bit of red rice in a bowl, fish out a drumstick, ladle on the veggies and broth, and garnish generously with sprinklings of finely diced raw onion, chopped cilantro, hot sauce, and a squeeze of lemon.

[Hiroyuki]

I wonder if the versions of chicken soup that many of you mention are greasy ones or bland ones, which Japanese prefer. And, if they are greasy ones, do children and elderly people eat them as well?

[chezlamere]

for flu with vomit and high fevers - I always have frozen raspberries (from the u-pick farm, or my mothers garden) in the freezer.

A bag of frozen raspberries (small freezer bag) and LOTS of sugar in a big pot of water. Boil until raspberries are mush. Strain and drink hot from a mug. Works everytime. I made this for my three children all the time. they just expected it whenever they got sick. Made a pot of this stuff usually every week during summer and served deluted instead of kool-aid. Mix any fruit with raspberries like gooseberries, strawberries, cherries, peaches. etc. But when your sick-raspberries only.

[Hiroyuki]

Sounds very yummy. If you drink that stuff on a regular basis, you won't get sick, right?

[Sleepy_Dragon]

Chinese rice congee for me too, with extra julienned ginger in it. Also hot and sour soup, both Chinese and Thai. Hot and spicy things seem to soothe my throat when it is sore, plus I can actually taste them.

Any kind of hot noodle soup like pho, nabe udon or won ton meen. There is also a homey Japanese place nearby I like to go to because of their nabe, especially the kimchi nabe.

Also, hot water with honey and lemon in it for drinking throughout the time I'm sick.

I guess the theme overall is hot, somewhat substantial and nourishing soup, often spicy but not always. And yes, no dairy for me either.

There's something about all that hot liquid being ideal for colds; it provides throat relief, and it's quickly assimilated and digested, and it carries its own heat, so one's body need not expend energy to generate the heat used to fight off the bugs, while at the same time encouraging blood circulation to more quickly expel the bugs through sweat and urine. I experience it as a wave of temporary relief after each bowl.

People who live in perpetually hot climates probably have a different approach though. And the comments about rice and yogurt are interesting to me too! I can't imagine eating any kind of dairy at all with a cold.

I also crave oranges, if the cold in question does not include having a sore throat. Otherwise no fruit, or anything raw.

Pat

[Pan]

There's something about all that hot liquid being ideal for colds; it provides throat relief, and it's quickly assimilated and digested, and it carries its own heat, so one's body need not expend energy to generate the heat used to fight off the bugs, while at the same time encouraging blood circulation to more quickly expel the bugs through sweat and urine. I experience it as a wave of temporary relief after each bowl.

People who live in perpetually hot climates probably have a different approach though.

They didn't in 1970s Terengganu, Malaysia. When I was sick, my landlady cooked a flavorful chicken soup for me of her own accord, as that was simply the thing to do. It had plenty of spices but was only moderately hot-spicy by Malaysian standards. Plus, they drank hot tea all the time (of course, they had no refrigerators in the village in those days, but it seems like they're still drinking plenty of hot tea today).

[Matsu]

Another vote for chicken soup. My husband makes Mrs. Grasses

Chicken soup (it's a box mix) for me when I'm sick and he adds

some cubed tofu for protein.

[jsolomon]

Chicen soup, and scrambled eggs with lots of tabasco sauce. But, please, spinach in with the homemade chicken soup. It's a comfort food thing.

[trinity63]

Hot Chicken Brodo (soup) with lots of carrots, onions and garlic. Helps every time.

[FistFullaRoux]

The consensus seems to be soup or something liquidy and hot. I think we all knew it would be chicken soup, or hot liquid at a minimum.

Now, here's the interesting part. It is the heat of the liquid? Flavor or spiciness? The protein already dissolved to enter the bloodstream that much easier? The collagen/gelatin coating the overworked throat and stomach tissues? Is it the rehydrating effects of the water based liquids?

Or is it simply what Mom used to do for you when you were a kid?

In other words, what part of the soup cure feels best, or does the most good for you? What particular sensation, flavor, temperature, or texture relieves the symptoms the best?

Me? I think it's the heat or the steam. I was on radio working overnights with no one to cover for me and running a 103 degree fever with bronchitis. I kept myself on the air with Hall's cough drops held in my mouth while sipping hot water. I was basically making a sort of humidifier. Did wonders for my throat but tore my stomach up something awful. I was way beyond the recommended dosage for a couple of days there. But the steam seemed to amplify the methol, which was the key for me at that point.

Edited May 2, 2004 by FistFullaRoux (log)

[chow guy]

Thai Tom Yum and Tom Kha soup is a close second.

I second that emotion. I head for Thai soups with lots of red chile paste and lime. Yum! (excuse the pun).

[NulloModo]

When I am sick nothing will do but:

Hot Tomato Soup (and only Tomato soup, none of this Chicken Soup business ;) ).

Ginger Ale or Selzter Water

The Hottest Buffalo Wings I can find drenched in bleu cheese.