How to Feed a Cold : Take 2 Bowls and Call Me in the Morning . . . : Remedies: Some like it spicy, some like it bland, but all over the world people agree there’s nothing like soup to soothe a cold.

Well or sick, you have to eat. Maintain the old vital processes, that’s key. And since eating is something that can be controlled (unlike the other things you have to do when you have a cold, like coughing, running at the nose and groaning in the fetal position), you’d like your meals to do your cold some positive good if they can.

That’s the story of food and the common cold in a nutshell. First, you’ve got to get some nutrition into the miserable sufferer--which means the food should be easy to swallow with a sore throat and easy for the weakened system to digest. This already makes the Mis. Suff. feel better, because food is cheering in itself, and soft, simple foods bring back reassuring memories of childhood.

The second aim is helping out with some of the symptoms. In most parts of the world, sickbed cuisine shades off into folk medicine, such as whatever evil-tasting herbs are known to local folklore. But the comforting foods are actually good for you too.

There is a sort of world consensus about what they should be. Basically, soup: plain broth, broth enriched with something starchy (anything from a couple of noodles to so much rice that the broth becomes a soupy porridge) or sometimes even a soup rich with meat or dairy products. If they give you anything but soup, it’s sure to be something simple and light, such as plain boiled vegetables or coddled eggs.

Sometimes invalid food is made bland on purpose, like the beef broth and milk toast of the traditional American sickroom. (My mother’s cold cure was canned cream of tomato soup diluted with milk.) But there’s also a school of thought that believes in violent flavorings such as garlic, red pepper or ginger.

The two philosophies may coexist. In Thailand they usually serve you a Chinese-style soupy porridge called kao tome when you have a cold. “But Tome Yum Goong, a shrimp hot and sour soup, is also used,� says Nancie McDermott, author of “Real Thai.� “It’s the more radical cure, the one you take when you’ve got to go to work.�

Dr. Irwin Ziment, professor of medicine at the UCLA School of Medicine, suggests a unified theory to account for all these recipes. In the first place, a sick person needs nutrition and fluids; a light, digestible, protein-rich soup is the natural choice. Chicken soup, recommended by the medieval philosopher and physician Moses Maimonides, has been called Jewish penicillin, but it’s a common remedy in a lot of countries. It’s found not only in Europe (from Russia to Italy, though other meats may also be used for the broth, as in the English beef tea) but in eastern Asia (in China, the meat of a black-skinned chicken is preferred--one Los Angeles Chinese restaurant will make black chicken soup for you, but only if you have a cold).

Light, liquid nutrition: well and good. But there’s also the problem of lung congestion, and Ziment believes the traditional violent flavorings directly help it.

“Most standard pharmacopeias from Europe and the Orient mention spices and garlic as expectorants,� Ziment writes. He believes garlic, horseradish, mustard, ginger, red pepper and black pepper loosen mucus in the lungs by causing the stomach to send a nerve signal to the brain, which sends a message back to the lungs stimulating fluid from the bronchial glands.

He sees chemical similarities between red pepper and the cough syrup ingredient guaifenesin, and a resemblance between carboxymethylcusteine (used in cold medicines in Europe) and the active ingredients in mustard and garlic. And, of course, inhaling the vapors of the soup can help too.

In China and Southeast Asia they believe not only in chicken soup but in the thin rice porridge called juk in Cantonese. This can be made with either water or broth, and with or without bits of meat, salted egg or vegetables for flavoring. In Japan a vegetarian juk called okayu is flavored by adding salted plums 20 to 30 minutes before serving (or just two or three minutes before, if you like your okayu chunky style).

It’s safe to say that wherever rice is eaten, rice soup or porridge is served to sick people. In Albania, you get rice pudding.

But the grain need not be rice. In Italy (no surprise), pasta is considered equally suitable; in Scotland you may get Scotch broth, made with lamb and barley. And this may be a very old tradition. The ancient Greeks’ medicinal broth was ptisane , a name that originally meant hulled barley. The 2nd-Century Roman cookbook of Apicius gives the following recipe for a ptisane (IV.iv.2):

“Soak garbanzos, lentils and peas. Crush barley and boil with the legumes. When it has boiled long enough, add sufficient oil and chop the following greens: leeks, cilantro, dill, fennel, Swiss chard, mallow and tender cabbage. Put all these finely chopped greens in the saucepan. Boil cabbage, pound a generous quantity of fennel seed, oregano, asafoetida and lovage, and after pounding, blend with liquamen (fish sauce, like the Thai nam pla or the Vietnamese nuoc mam ). Pour over the legumes (and barley) and stir. Put chopped cabbage leaves on top.�

Oddly, the name of this very substantial dish lives on in the French word for herbal tea ( tisane ).

If you want a substantial dish, take a look into “Yin-Shang Cheng-Yao,� a 13th-Century dietary manual compiled for Kublai Khan. It gives Chinese recipes such as black chicken soup and juk , but also dishes of Mongolian and Turkish origin. One, which the book describes as “heating� and thus presumably good for a cold, was a soup of wolf leg boiled with turmeric, saffron, cardamom, asafoetida, black pepper, long pepper and grain of paradise (two spices very similar to pepper), served with onions, sauce, salt and vinegar.

The book says, “If wolf meat does not smell, it is poisonous,� but the recipe itself is not particularly bizarre. Translator Paul Buell speculates that one day a Mongol chieftain threw a freshly slain wolf to his chefs and yelled, “Cook that!� and they simply prepared it as they would lamb. Buell has tried the recipe with leg of lamb instead of wolf and says it’s pretty good.

In Iran (to be sure, a country where the weather gets pretty icy in the cold season), the invalid’s soup is likely to be rich, perhaps a pumpkin soup or yogurt soup with meatballs, but Iran also believes in chicken broth with handfuls of herbs in it. A uniquely Iranian idea is whole onions, baked soft in the oven. In medieval Baghdad the cure was isfidhabaja , a simple, soupy lamb stew that might contain cheese and herbs as well as spices. Curiously, isfidhabaja meant “white stew,� echoing the Italian terminology for the light foods served to an invalid: la dieta in bianco.

When it comes to spices, red pepper is the magic ingredient in the hot-and-sour soups of eastern Asia, of course, and of a rich soup like the Mexican oxtail soup. The West African cold cure is pepper soup.

“In Nigeria,� says May Ndubuisi, proprietor of African Food Nest Catering in Chino Hills, “we make a type of soup that we call nsala in my language, but everybody in Nigeria knows what you mean if you call it pepper soup. It’s the very richest soup we make, with several kinds of meat in it--fresh fish, dried fish, smoked fish, chicken, meat--so it’s very nutritious, and it’s also full of medicinal herbs and spices. The herbs are good for you, and the hot pepper opens up your nose so you breathe well and cough it out. Pepper soup is also served to women who have just given birth in their homes.�

Ginger is used over a surprisingly wide area. It shows up in Chinese and Southeast Asian broths, and (together with black pepper) it is considered a sovereign remedy in India. “A thin lentil soup with curry spices and as much fresh ginger as you can stand,� says Prem Chadda, former owner of Gitanjali Restaurant in Los Angeles. “The ginger opens all the passages. Or you can puree fresh ginger, squeeze the juice out of the pulp and mix it with honey and serve it at room temperature. At my restaurant, all the staff used to get this treatment when they had a cold, even the non-Indians.�

Julie Sahni, author of “Indian Vegetarian and Grain Cookery,� recommends tulsi ki cha , a soup made from holy basil, a relative of our kitchen basil that has many religious associations in India. (“It’s the only time it’s ever cooked,� she says; “it would be sort of like cooking the American Eagle.�) You take a handful and cook it in half a cup of water until it’s dark and strong, she says, and then strain it and add honey and sliced ginger.

Perhaps because of experience during the British Raj, the ginger cult is also found in Scotland. When you have a cold there, they’re liable to make you drink currant wine strongly flavored with ginger.

The two greatest garlic-eating groups in the world--the Catalans of northeastern Spain and the Koreans--unhesitatingly recommend their garlickiest dishes to a cold sufferer: the garlic mayonnaise all-i-oli in Spain and the garlicky (and peppery) pickles known as kimchi in Korea.

And you obviously can’t go wrong combining all these ingredients, as in the Filipino dish arroz caldo , a chicken broth with rice, red pepper, ginger and garlic.

To be sure, in some places, such as Lebanon, a lot of people don’t have a repertoire of foods considered medicinal. They may give you a wrenchingly bitter herbal tea, but your dinner will be the same as anybody else’s (of course, the regular Lebanese diet contains plenty of garlic to start with).

And it’s also true that Western medical ideas, such as antibiotics and mentholated inhalants, are spreading all over the world and obscuring local traditions. In “Couscous and Other Good Foods From Morocco,� author Paula Wolfert noted how the local healer at a weekly camel market in southwestern Morocco would listen attentively as each of his patients explained his symptoms and then solemnly hand him a little pink packet of French-made aspirin.

It’s not only Western medical ideas that are spreading. When Wolfert’s assistant got sick, some neighbors kindly went into town and brought back bottles of American soft drinks for her. (Not absolutely bad--the sugar would at least have improved her mood, and cola syrup is so digestible it’s sold in our own pharmacies.) “Fortunately,� Wolfert observes, “Moroccans don’t seem to get colds. Either they’re well or they have horrible infections and die.�

It should be noted that many places have a tradition of taking the easy way out--a shot of booze. This is the traditional whiskey toddy (with tea and lemon), the Armenian cup of tea spiked with brandy, the French grog : a lump of sugar, a slice of lemon, rum and hot water.

Two hundred years ago, doctors considered alcohol a universal “tonic,� just the thing for any illness. Today they tend to look askance at drinking when you’re sick because it weakens the system. But there’s no getting around the fact that alcohol is a painkiller, and it’s hard to find any foods that do much for a headache.

A retired doctor I know actually used to dose himself with morphine when he had a cold. “Nothing you can take will really make it go away any faster,� he argued. “So why suffer?� But he was a doctor. The rest of us will have to do with aspirin, acetaminophen, ibuprofen and soup.

The doctor’s instructions include inhaling fumes of the soup while it boils. Other ingredients may be added to taste, such as carrots, bay leaves and chile flakes. You may prefer to use unsalted chicken broth.

Incidentally, during the month of February you can send the label from any cold medicine to Empire Kosher Poultry, P.O. Box 165, Mifflintown, Penn. 17059, and they’ll send you an old-fashioned Jewish chicken soup recipe and a coupon worth 75 cents off on one of their chickens .

DR. ZIMENT’S PRESCRIPTION GARLIC CHICKEN SOUP FOR COLDS AND COUGHS 2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans clear chicken broth 1 head garlic, about 15 cloves, separated and peeled 5 sprigs parsley, minced 6 sprigs cilantro, minced 1 teaspoon lemon pepper 1 teaspoon minced mint leaves 1 teaspoon minced basil 1 teaspoon curry powder Salt

Combine broth, garlic, parsley, cilantro, lemon pepper, mint leaves, basil and curry powder in saucepan. Bring to boil, then simmer 30 minutes. Strain garlic and herbs from broth (they may be pureed and returned to broth). Divide into 4 equal portions and have 1 portion at beginning of each of 3 daily meals. Makes about 2 1/2 cups, 4 servings.

Each serving contains about: 80 calories; 1,365 mg sodium; 2 mg cholesterol; 2 grams fat; 6 grams carbohydrates; 10 grams protein; 0.19 gram fiber.

For millions of sick people in the Philippines, Arroz Caldo is the No. 1 food craving. For generations, this chicken and rice soup has been prescribed by Filipino mothers for their ailing families. Perhaps it’s the garlic, the ginger or the hot vapors--whatever it is, this healing soup gives relief. Here’s the traditional recipe with a slight change. A confetti of finely diced red pepper has been added to perk it up a bit for someone who’s sick.

ARROZ CALDO (Chicken-Rice Soup) 2 tablespoons oil 4 to 6 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed 2 teaspoons peeled and minced ginger root or 2 (1-inch) pieces, lightly crushed 1 medium onion, chopped 2 to 3 tablespoons fish sauce (patis or nam pla) Few threads saffron, optional 1 small chicken, cut up, with giblets 8 cups water 1 (14 1/2-ounce) can clear chicken broth Salt White pepper 3/4 cup rice 1/4 cup finely diced sweet red pepper 1/2 cup finely chopped green onions, green tops only 1 to 2 lemons, cut into small wedges Additional fish sauce, optional

Heat oil in stockpot over medium heat. Add and saute garlic until golden brown and crisp. Remove garlic with slotted spoon and set aside.

Add ginger and onion and saute until tender. Stir in fish sauce, saffron and chicken and saute few minutes. Add water and chicken broth and bring to boil. Season to taste with salt and white pepper. Cover and simmer until chicken is very tender, about 1 hour. (Skim off fat.)

Add rice and red pepper and continue simmering, covered, just until rice is tender, about 15 to 20 minutes. Add more hot water if necessary for soupy consistency. Season to taste with salt and white pepper.

Serve hot in bowls sprinkled with crisp garlic and green onions as desired. Flavor as desired with lemon wedges and more fish sauce. Makes 6 servings.

Each serving contains about: 304 calories; 590 mg sodium; 76 mg cholesterol; 17 grams fat; 17 grams carbohydrates; 19 grams protein; 0.18 gram fiber.

In Iran it’s chicken soup, pumpkin soup or a rich, soothing yogurt soup. This recipe is from “In a Persian Kitchen� by Maideh Mazda.

ASH-E-MAST (Hot Yogurt Soup) 1/2 pound ground beef 1 small onion, grated Salt, pepper 4 cups yogurt 1/4 cup rice 1 tablespoon flour 1 egg, beaten 4 1/2 cups water 1/2 cup chopped parsley 1/2 cup chopped green onions 1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh dill 1/2 cup cooked or canned garbanzo beans 1 to 2 cloves garlic Butter 1 tablespoon dried mint

Combine ground beef, onion, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in bowl and mix well. Make into walnut-sized meatballs.

Combine yogurt, rice, flour, egg, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in 4-quart pot and beat well. Add water and mix. Cook over very low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 20 minutes. Add meatballs and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in parsley, green onions, dill and garbanzos and simmer 15 minutes, stirring often to prevent curdling.

Chop garlic and saute in butter until tender. Add mint. To serve, ladle soup into bowls and top with 1 teaspoon garlic-mint mixture. Makes 6 servings.

Each serving contains about: 345 calories; 239 mg sodium; 83 mg cholesterol; 16 grams fat; 30 grams carbohydrates; 20 grams protein; 0.95 gram fiber.

“Soups can cure any illness, whether physical or mental--at least, that was Chencha’s firm belief . . . .� --from “Like Water for Chocolate,� by Laura Esquivel (Doubleday: 1992).

OXTAIL SOUP 2 oxtails, about 2 pounds 2 tablespoons oil 1 onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 quarts water 4 tomatoes, peeled and chopped 1/2 pound green beans, cut in 1-inch lengths 2 potatoes, cut in chunks 4 chiles moritas Salt, pepper

Cut oxtails into joints. Heat oil in large pan. Add onion and 1 clove garlic and cook until browned. Add water, tomatoes, green beans, potatoes, chiles and salt and pepper to taste.

Cover and simmer until meat is tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours, adding additional water if necessary. Adjust seasonings to taste. Makes 6 servings.

Note from The Times’ Test Kitchen: To avoid getting mushy green beans and potatoes, add during last half hour of cooking.

Each serving contains about: 182 calories; 77 mg sodium; 14 mg cholesterol; 9 grams fat; 21 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams protein; 1.81 grams fiber.

In a 10th-Century Arabic cookbook, this recipe is said to be from the collection of Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi, a famous 9th-Century gourmet. It would be good served with a scoop of cooked rice.

ISFIDHABAJA KHADRA (Lamb Stew) 1 pound lamb, cubed 1 stick cinnamon 4 ounces onion, chopped 1 1/2 quarts water Salt 2 ounces goat cheese or feta Greens of 1 stalk celery 1 bunch cilantro 3 tablespoons ground coriander 1 teaspoon black pepper 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Combine lamb, cinnamon stick and onion in stockpot. Add water to cover and salt to taste. Simmer 45 minutes. Add cheese. Cook, skimming fat periodically until meat is tender, about 45 minutes, adding water if needed. Remove cinnamon stick.

Puree celery leaves and cilantro. Strain through cloth and add juices to meat. Add coriander, pepper and ground cinnamon. Stir well. Cook 1 to 2 minutes, then serve. Makes 6 servings.

Each serving contains about: 116 calories; 207 mg sodium; 45 mg cholesterol; 5 grams fat; 4 grams carbohydrates; 13 grams protein; 0.93 gram fiber.

From Scotland, and “Sara Walker’s Highland Fling Cookbook� (Atheneum: 1971). “This soup was considered extremely nourishing by my mother, and excellent for anyone convalescing from an illness.� It’s the classic Scotch broth.

DUMBARTON BARLEY BROTH 2 pounds boneless lamb shoulder or neck, cubed 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 quarts cold water 1/2 cup barley 1 small turnip, diced 6 medium carrots, diced 1 tablespoon salt 1/2 teaspoon white pepper 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice 2 large leeks, diced 1/4 cup chopped parsley

Wipe lamb meat with damp cloth and place in large pot. Add water. Bring to boil and add barley. Simmer 1 hour and skim off fat. Add turnip and carrots.

Season to taste with salt, white pepper and allspice. Simmer 1/2 hour. Add leeks and parsley. Simmer 1/2 hour more and serve. Makes 8 servings.

Each serving contains about: 203 calories; 971 mg sodium; 56 mg cholesterol; 6 grams fat; 18 grams carbohydrates; 19 grams protein; 1.32 grams fiber.

From “Real Thai,� by Nancie McDermott. This recipe calls for fresh lemon-grass stalks. She notes that the Thais regard lemon grass as a healing herb with particular power over colds.

TOME YUM GOONG (Spicy Shrimp Soup With Lemon Grass and Lime) 3 large stalks fresh lemon grass 6 fresh khi nu chiles or 3 serrano chiles Juice of 1 lime 3 green onions, cut into 1-inch lengths 12 fresh Kaffir lime leaves 4 cups chicken stock 2 (6-ounce) cans canned straw mushrooms, drained 1 tablespoon Roasted Chile Paste, or bottled Thai chile paste 1/2 pound shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails left on 2 tablespoons nam pla, nuoc mam or other Asian fish sauce

Trim off lemon grass stalks to 6 inches long. Cut away any hard root section below bulb. Discard tough outer leaves. Bruise stalks on all sides with blunt edge of cleaver or heavy knife, hitting firmly at 2-inch intervals.

Remove stems of chiles. Crush chiles under flat side of cleaver or chef’s knife until split. Combine crushed chiles, lime juice, green onions and 6 lime leaves in large bowl. Set aside.

Pour stock into large pot and bring to boil over medium heat. Add bruised lemon grass stalks and remaining 6 lime leaves. Reduce heat to simmer. Cook until lemon grass is dull green and stock is fragrant, about 5 minutes.

Remove and discard lemon grass. Increase heat to high, add straw mushrooms and Roasted Chile Paste. Boil 1 minute. Add shrimp and fish sauce and cook until shrimp are pink, opaque and firm, no more than 1 minute.

Remove soup from heat and pour into serving bowl containing crushed chile mixture. Stir quickly to combine. Adjust seasonings to taste. Adjust lime juice, fish sauce and chile paste to taste. Serve in bowls. Makes 6 servings.

Each serving contains about: 88 calories; 800 mg sodium; 57 mg cholesterol; 2 grams fat; 5 grams carbohydrates; 12 grams protein; 0.54 gram fiber.

Roasted Chile Paste 1/2 cup small dried red chiles 1/2 cup shallots, unpeeled, halved lengthwise 1/4 cup garlic cloves, unpeeled, halved lengthwise 1/2 cup oil

Heat wok or small, heavy skillet over low heat. Fry chiles without oil until dark, fragrant and brittle, about 5 minutes, shaking pan and stirring frequently. Remove chiles to small plate to cool.

In same pan over medium heat, fry shallots and garlic without oil, turning occasionally, until tender, blistered and spotted with black but not burned all over, about 5 minutes. Transfer to plate.

Remove stems from chiles and discard most seeds. Cut chiles into small pieces. Trim peels and root ends from shallots and garlic and cut in small pieces. Combine chiles, garlic and shallots in large, heavy mortar and pound and grind to smooth paste, 20 to 30 minutes, scraping sides down occasionally with spoon.

Warm oil in wok or small, deep skillet over medium heat 1 minute. Add paste and cook, stirring occasionally, until paste turns deep, brownish black and releases rich fragrance, about 5 minutes. Remove paste and oil to jar, sealing tightly when cool. Will keep at room temperature 1 month.

MILK TOAST 1 pint half and half 4 slices bread, toasted Butter Salt, pepper

Heat half and half gently to simmer. Butter toast generously. Break each bread slice into bite-sized pieces and divide between 4 heated bowls.

Pour simmering milk over bread, season to taste with salt and pepper and serve. Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about: 254 calories; 238 mg sodium; 55 mg cholesterol; 18 grams fat; 17 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams protein; 0.04 gram fiber.