Chicken Soup

When I was young, my mother would prescribe chicken soup for the flu. Now, in Hong Kong, chicken soup gives you the flu! WILFRED COUZIN Laguna Niguel

  Total time: 3½ hours Servings: 6 to 8 Note: It is best to make the soup a day or two ahead and to refrigerate it, so that skimming the fat is easier. The soup is served with herb-flecked kneidelach (matzo balls) and zehug (a chile-garlic relish); separate recipes for these are included with the story. 2 pounds chicken pieces, preferably legs and thighs 2 carrots (½ carrot cut in 2 chunks, the rest quartered lengthwise and sliced about ¼-inch thick)

  Total time: 3½ hours Servings: 6 to 8 Note: It is best to make the soup a day or two ahead and to refrigerate it, so that skimming the fat is easier. The soup is served with herb-flecked kneidelach (matzo balls) and zehug (a chile-garlic relish); separate recipes for these are included with the story. 2 pounds chicken pieces, preferably legs and thighs 2 carrots (½ carrot cut in 2 chunks, the rest quartered lengthwise and sliced about ¼-inch thick)

Herb-flecked kneidelach (matzo balls) Total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes, plus chilling time Servings: This makes about 24 matzo balls. 3 eggs 1 tablespoon vegetable oil such as grapeseed or safflower oil 2/3 cup matzo meal (sometimes labeled matsah meal) (about 2½ ounces) 1/2 teaspoon salt, more as needed 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper 3 cups plus 5 tablespoons strained chicken soup (or prepared chicken or vegetable broth or water)

"Chicken Soup for the Woman's Soul." "Chicken Soup for the Country Soul." "Chicken Soup for the Pet Lover's Soul." With more than 21 warm-and-fuzzy, self-help titles now in bookstores, and many more planned, the chicken soup isn't running out any time soon. In five years, the series, which features stories "to open the heart and rekindle the spirit," has become a cottage industry.

For whatever ails you. . . . * Sofi: Snifflers and other chicken soup aficionados duck into this pretty, tucked-away Greek restaurant where they can sit in a lovely patio and enjoy an especially good bowl of avgolemono; a chicken soup enriched with egg and lemon. ($4.95 per bowl). Sofi, 8030 W. 3rd St., (213) 651-0346. * Canter's: The broth is so thick and yellow it's almost opaque; the matzo balls--L.A.'

Here are the eight restaurants on the chicken soup tour. Grill on the Alley, 9560 Dayton Way, Beverly Hills. (310) 276-0615. Nate 'n Al's, 414 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills. (310) 274-0101. La Cabanita, 3445-7 N. Verdugo Road, Glendale. (818) 957-2711. Nanay Gloria Bakeshop & Restaurant, 2432 W. Temple St., Los Angeles. (213) 387-7114. El Zunzal, 1930 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles. (213) 387-5384. Sunshine Thai Cuisine, 13212 Sherman Way, North Hollywood. (818) 764-6989. Hoan Kiem, 727 N.

It is not unusual while driving to work (or anywhere) to get stuck in heavy freeway traffic. Cars inch along for miles, bumper to bumper, then sud-denly the tie-up disappears as mysteriously as it began. If there had been an accident, a lane closure or some other identifiable cause, the jam would have made sense. But why, we have long wondered, does traffic grind to a halt for no reason? Wonder no more. This very question (along with its corollary--what causes the traffic to clear?

Frank DeCaro, the author of "The Dead Celebrity Cookbook," is contemplating a bite of Greer Garson's capirotada. Dressed in a red-and-white checked shirt and a red apron with one red and one black oven mitt by his side, the former "Daily Show" film critic and Sirius Radio talk show host looks somewhat befuddled. He pushes his thick, black-rimmed glasses up on his nose and chews slowly. The dish by the Oscar-winning star of the 1942 film "Mrs. Miniver" is a strangely archaic mix of white bread, Colby cheese, raisins and sugar-cinnamon syrup.

After her son Nathaniel died of AIDS in 1989, Mollie Pier threw herself into a number of volunteer efforts on behalf of gay men and lesbians. She also helped found Project Chicken Soup, a nonprofit volunteer organization that provides kosher meals for people throughout Los Angeles County living with HIV or AIDS. For Pier, the group's activities and other outreach efforts became a link not only to her son but to hundreds of others. "I can't even begin to tell you how many people I've helped be who they are," says Pier, 91, who plans to participate in Sunday's 27th annual AIDS Walk Los Angeles.

Longtime Poison frontman Bret Michaels steps back into the limelight this week with a new iTunes single out featuring Miley Cyrus, of all people, on a power ballad called "Nothing to Lose." His new album, "Custom Built," is due in late spring, and he's also in the cast of "The Celebrity Apprentice" season premiering March 14 on NBC. "And March 15 is my birthday, so everything is kind of hitting at the same time," said Michaels, who'll be 47. "It's a good feeling to still be this busy this far into my career."

To fully appreciate the skill involved in Anna Kendrick's purse-lipped, perfect-postured turn as Natalie, the comic and dramatic foil to George Clooney in Jason Reitman's "Up in the Air," it helps to watch the 24-year-old in action. In the dramedy about a middle-aged executive (Clooney) who uses his job on the road as a hall pass for life, Kendrick's Natalie is the sassy upstart, armed with sensible pumps, a decidedly unfashionable low ponytail, and a purposeful stride that gives her stature.

  Total time: 2 hours, 20 minutes Servings: 12 Note: Adapted from a recipe by chef Todd Aarons of Tierra Sur. Ask your kosher butcher in advance to grind the chicken if you don't have a grinder at home, as well as for chicken back bones for the stock. Persian limes (lemon omani) are available at select Iranian and Middle Eastern markets, as well as online at kalustyans.com and sadaf.com. Matzo cake flour is available at kosher markets. If you follow Sephardic tradition, you may garnish the soup with English peas.

Americans are increasingly heading to the supplements aisle at the first sign of a sniffle. Some believe that supplements are an effective way to head off a cold or the flu. Others are wary of the side effects associated with over-the-counter drugs, or alarmed about the risks cold medicines appear to pose to children. Sales of cold and flu supplements have grown so much (8% in 2006, compared to 2% for over-the-counter drugs), that more traditional cold and flu brands have taken note.

"Chicken Soup for the Soul" -- the line of inspirational books launched by motivational speakers Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen in 1993 -- has become a cottage industry of sorts. With 170 titles as diverse as "Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul" or "Chicken Soup for the Soul in Menopause," the books are supposed to encourage the crestfallen and bring hope to the hopeless.

Along with the cold and flu season, old-time beliefs and adages come around every year too. Mothers admonish their children not to go out of the house with wet hair, and to remove wet socks after coming in from the rain, for fear the kids will catch their death of cold. They offer up chicken soup as a cure-all. And, of course, most of us have heard that we should "feed a cold and starve a fever."