Posted on 12/15/2020 5:57:07 PM PST by nickcarraway
The universal feel-good elixir expresses itself deliciously from culture to culture.
It’s rare that a dish appears in cuisines all over the world. Chicken soup — the global feel-better elixir — is one of them. Soothing and comforting at a time when so many Americans are ailing from a pandemic or smarting from bruising political battles, it is this season’s perfect panacea.
Chicken soup can celebrate what so many of us have in common: When someone sniffles, moms and grandmas (and increasingly pops and grandpas) around the globe drop chicken in water with aromatics and simmer away.
At the same time, from the Americas to Asia, from Eastern Europe to the Levant and Africa, chicken soups have the qualities and tastes that make every culture deliciously unique.
There’s the American-Jewish version I grew up with: a chicken in the pot with celery, onion, carrots and dill; egg noodles went in at the end. There are more colorful versions, like a Mexican caldo de pollo, zingy with lime, that might feature cabbage, zucchini, garbanzo beans or chunks of corn-on-the-cob — plus lots of cilantro.
There are tangy, herbal, coconutty versions, like Thailand’s tom kha kai; fragrantly spicy chicken soups called djaj from Lebanon or Morocco; creamy examples like Italian Stracciatella alla Romana or Dutch Koninginnesoep. In China, there is rich and tonic qing dun quan ji, in which a chicken is blanched then long-simmered in water with a big piece of smashed ginger, scallions and Shaoxing wine; some cooks add tonic herbs or roots like Chinese angelica, ginseng or milk vetch, or goji berries toward the end.
Tibetan Thukpa has tomatoes, vermicelli, vegetables and chiles; in Iran, chickpea-and-lamb meatballs swim with the chicken in abgusht-e-margh ba kufteh-ye nokhodchi;
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
I’m pretty sure there are some places where they have to substitute leeches for chicken.
did you misspell Leeks or do you really mean the blood sucking animal?
Who does that?
My Grandfather always referred to it as, “Jewish Penicillin”.
I’m not eating their soup then!
That said, I have read that chicken broth actually has decongestant properties, although I have no idea why or how. But that’s why its popular as a cold/flu beverage. I think it helps, but I’m from NYC, where chicken soup was just the automatic solution to not feeling good.
Same. Odds of me eating chicken soup in Iran where Ayatollah Khomeini said it ok to F*ck a chicken and serve it to your neighbor...zero.
“You have to ask yourself if a man who has had sex with a chicken can then eat the chicken afterwards. Our leader has provided us with an answer: No, neither he nor his immediate family or next-door neighbors can eat of that chicken’s meat, but it’s okay for a neighbor who lives two doors away”
No wonder some cultures never get off the ground. They’re trying to figure out what the neighbor two doors down did with their dinner meal.
Have had several cooking jobs in the past. I enjoy making chicken soup or bone broth in my home. Actually, there are times when I get more satisfaction from making the soup, than eating it. I tend to use slow simmering methods, that could last for several hours. Hobby Cooks know what I mean.
The Zen or the entire process of cooking, from chopping, to dropping to the final clean up, can become a form of meditation.
Old remedy was to have a dish of hot water and put towel over head. Then came vaporizers.
I am having potato soup tonight.
I love dill in chicken soup.
I think you mean leeks. I’m going to process your post that way so I don’t run screaming from my computer.
I use escarole. My friends are Italians.
“can become a form of meditation.”
I know what you mean, except the cleaning process!
Chicken soup doesn’t smell that good in close quarters...I think I’ll stick with Vicks....
“My Grandfather always referred to it as, “Jewish Penicillin”.”
Maybe that is the reason that so many infected with COVID-19 were asymptomatic?
We need a study... and for the study, we will need a recipe.
At the moment my preferred is Greek style: Avgolemono Soup...Which is distinguished by lemon-egg sauce added to the broth. And wild rice. See below:
Bumbity bump! Love me some chicken soup of all kinds!
ping
;^)
Cauliflower soup is good too, you can cook it so the sulfur smell goes away, int the water you toss out.
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