It’s been a doozy of a cold and flu season in Maine, by all accounts. When you’re laid low by illness, there are some foods your body just craves (assuming you have any appetite left at all).
We talked with eight food authorities around Greater Portland about the foods and hot beverages they lean on most when they’re under the weather. Some are home-cooked dishes they’ve relied on since childhood, some are local takeout must-haves. One common theme from our sources, whether they grew up here or abroad: Piping-hot soup is a universally trusted cure-all. No surprise that moms around the world have been right all along.
Allison DeFlumeri, owner and lead clinician at Immortalata in Biddeford
As a functional nutritionist (a holistic practitioner who uses food and nutrients to address the underlying causes of disease), Allison DeFlumeri knows the healing power of food. When she’s sick, she turns to a pureed carrot-ginger soup with a bone broth base that offers “good, clean nutrition” and is easy to digest.
DeFlumeri said she was inspired by a recipe she found on Pinterest. But while that dish calls for vegetable broth, she uses Kettle & Fire brand chicken bone broth. Compared to other store-bought meat stocks or broths, quality bone broths contain more protein and glutamine, key nutrients that can speed the healing process. Moreover, the fresh ginger eases inflammation.
Like many of us, DeFlumeri craves the lush comfort of a creamy soup on sick days. “But if you’re plugged up and snuffy, dairy is not going to be your best friend,” she said. So she blends in coconut milk for added richness without causing any further congestion.
DeFlumeri eats fresh citrus fruit like oranges and tangerines for a boost of vitamin C when she’s under the weather. But she also munches on pumpkin seeds for their high zinc content. She prefers seeds that are raw, not roasted, because heat can lower their vitamin B content.
Isai Galvez, co-owner of Sal de la Tierra and the El Salerito food truck, Portland
Galvez said in Latino cultures, “When you’re sick at home, you make a sopa.”
His traditional remedy is sopa de res, made with beef short ribs or shanks, simmered low and slow until the meat falls from the bone and the marrow fortifies the stock. Galvez pairs it with some plain rice or tortillas.
If he’s not up for cooking, Galvez heads to Leavitt & Sons Deli in Portland for the “Flu-Chaser” chicken noodle soup. When his stomach feels particularly sensitive, he goes for an acai bowl from Playa Bowls at Rock Row in Westbrook. “Those are really good because they’re not so heavy, and there’s lots of fruit in it.”
Though the chef at his pan-Latin restaurant and food truck makes soup for sick customers, Galvez and his wife, Paola, have a long-standing tradition of visiting Tu Casa on Washington Avenue for some comfort foods from his father’s home country of El Salvador.
“I don’t know if it’s nutritionally sound,” Galvez said of the pollo asado, carne asada and pupusas they get from Tu Casa, “but it definitely makes us feel better.”
Alejandra Herrera, co-owner of Quiero Cafe in Portland and Saco
Herrera and her husband, Carlos Guzman, live with his Colombian parents. “My mother-in-law cooks for us, so that’s a plus,” she said.
Their family’s typical remedy food is Colombian chicken soup, or caldo, with potatoes, onion and carrots. Sometimes Herrera’s mother-in-law makes a mild-flavored caldo de costilla with beef ribs and eggs poached in the broth.
To soothe sore throats, they make a hot tea with lemon and ginger, sweetened with panela, a caramelly, unrefined whole cane sugar from Latin America.
But when her stomach doesn’t feel great, Herrara relies on a simple dish familiar to any American: Quaker oatmeal with milk and a touch of sugar and cinnamon.
Qi Shen, owner of Sichuan Kitchen and Tuan Yuan Hotpot, Portland
When Shen’s stomach is upset, she makes congee, a rice porridge from her native China. She soaks rice for about 30 minutes , then cooks it in water or broth flavored with ginger, scallion and a little soy sauce.
“It’s very light, soft and gentle to the stomach,” she said. For a little protein, she might add a fish fillet or even a pungent, preserved “thousand-year” egg. Like DeFlumeri, Shen avoids dairy when she’s under the weather, since she finds it harder to digest.
Shen said many of her customers at Sichuan Kitchen order Spicy Sour Soup Noodles when they’ve got a cold or flu, because the heat helps clear their congestion. But her own go-to sick day order is beef or chicken pho from Than Than 2 on Forest Avenue.
“When I really feel sick, the place in the Portland area I want to go is there,” Shen said. “The pho has noodles, vegetables and some protein. It’s very comforting.”
Prakash Jayavelu Singh, chef-owner Wow India in Portland
Originally from South India, Singh has always leaned on heavily spiced — but not hot — dishes when he’s ill.
When he was run down a few weeks ago, for instance, he whipped up some rasam, a tangy, warm-spiced soup featuring tamarind and lemon, tomatoes, mustard seed, fresh garlic, roasted cumin seeds, black pepper and turmeric powder.
“That was what my mom used to give me,” Singh said. “We don’t serve it in the restaurant, but even now, when I’m sick, I make some. It makes your body heat up — it’s very healthy.”
Singh finds soft-cooked lentils and vegetables in sambar stew to be gentle on the stomach. Likewise, khichri — lentils and rice lightly seasoned with turmeric — soothes digestion, as does curd rice, a rice-yogurt blend.
To help both his stomach and throat, Singh makes a spice tea called kashayam by steeping a blend of coriander, cumin and fennel seeds, star anise, cinnamon stick, curry leaves, cloves and green cardamom in hot water. Singh said warm, turmeric-laced milk (known as golden milk) is another sore throat cure. “Adding a little ginger makes it even better.”
Jake Stevens, chef-owner of Leeward in Portland
Though Stevens, a three-time nominee for Best Chef: Northeast at the James Beard Awards, cooks Italian food at Leeward, he turns to Asian food when he’s ailing.
If he’s up for cooking at home, Stevens said he usually makes a “bastardized” version of kimchi-jjigae, a traditional Korean stew with pork, tofu and lots of spicy fermented cabbage. If he’s feeling more like takeout, he goes for pho, which he grew up eating in the Pacific Northwest.
“Whether you’ve got a head cold or you’re hungover, pho is always a panacea,” Stevens said. His usual order is the rare beef and flank pho at Veranda Noodle Bar on Veranda Street.
“I add as many herbs and hot sauce and lime juice as I can pack into the thing, especially if I’ve got a head cold,” Stevens said. “I’m trying to clear those sinuses out.”
Stevens also likes to sip on Vietnamese soda chanh, a blend of lime juice, soda water and sugar. “It’s the perfect companion to the hot bowl of soup.”
Kristine Taylor, dietitian and owner of Tidewater Nutrition & Wellness, Portland
Since childhood, Taylor has relied on chicken noodle or rice soup when she’s out of sorts.
As a nutrition professional, she now knows specifically why the old-school remedy helps. Hot broth hydrates, clears congestion and provides protein and electrolytes from sodium and potassium, while the veggies offer important nutrients and antioxidants.
Taylor also says research has shown chicken broth to contain anti-inflammatory properties that help the immune system.
For a sore throat, Taylor likes to make tea with mucilaginous herbs like slippery elm, marshmallow root and licorice that coat the mucous membrane. For upset stomach symptoms, she puts herself on a BRAT diet, the bland, low-fiber regimen of bananas, plain white rice, applesauce and white toast.
Taylor also finds fermented dairy like yogurt and kefir to be soothing and easy to digest, while delivering protein and probiotics. She notes that dairy can work just fine for some people when they’re sick.
“There tends to be foods we all sort of gravitate toward when we’re sick, and I think there’s intuitive wisdom to that,” Taylor said.
David Turin, chef-owner of David’s Restaurant, Portland, and David’s 388 in South Portland
Turin doesn’t shy away from dairy when he’s run down. He’ll make himself some cheesy scrambled eggs, or creamy broccoli soup with a grilled cheese sandwich.
“You’ve got to have a grilled cheese sandwich with your soup,” Turin said, and generations of Americans would likely agree. He uses cheddar cheese with some mayo on Tuscan wheat from When Pigs Fly, his staple bread at home.
For a soothing sipper, Turin steeps peel-on lemon slices and fresh ginger chunks in herbal tea, and sweetens the mixture with sinus-clearing hot honey.
Turin’s most traditional sick day meal is a steaming bowl of matzo ball soup. He uses fresh chicken stock from his restaurant as a base, but said good quality store-bought bone broth and a package of matzo ball mix would work great in a pinch for anyone not up to cooking the dish from scratch.
He also adds some nontraditional spice to the mild matzo ball soup in the form of chile flakes, red curry paste or sriracha. “I don’t know if that’s just because it’s easier to taste stuff when it’s spicy, but it feels like a little heat helps make you feel better and warms everything up.”
Carrot Ginger Soup
This is the go-to sick day soup for Biddeford functional nutritionist Allison DeFlumeri. The recipe is adapted from muchamunch.com. The original version is vegan and uses vegetable stock, but DeFlumeri likes to use protein-rich bone broth. You’ll need a kitchen scale. Note: Some liquid measurements are in milliliters.
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
500 grams carrots, peeled and sliced
750 milliliters chicken bone broth (or vegetable broth)
200 milliliters coconut milk
½ teaspoon salt
Black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon lemon juice (optional)
Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat.
Add the onion and sauté for 3 minutes until translucent. Stir in the garlic and ginger, and cook for another minute. Add the carrots and sauté briefly.
Pour in the broth and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and let the soup simmer for about 20 minutes, until the carrots are soft.
Add the coconut milk and lemon juice (if using), then blend the soup with an immersion blender or in batches in a regular blender until smooth and creamy.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Serve hot, garnished as desired.
This story was originally published by the Maine Trust for Local News. Tim Cebula can be reached at tcebula@pressherald.com.