One more spoonful, tateleh, and you can go to bed.Photo: Zoe Singer
Right now there are two kinds of New Yorkers: those with a cold, flu, cough, sniffle, ache, or fever, and those trying to ward off everyone else’s germs. Our advice: Stay close to home, and let the chicken soup and orange juice come to you.
Ripe for the Moment
If you’re up for squeezing your own juice, temple oranges are marvelously sweet right now. Two oranges yield a cup of juice, so grab a few bags and let the delivery person schlep them (temple oranges are 43 cents each at Fairway).
Feel like you owe something to the cold-sufferers of the world since you dodged the bug? Send the Chicken Soup and Hearts gift basket from Zabar’s. Their excellent chicken noodle soup is gussied up with fresh OJ, chamomile tea, honey, heart-shaped cookies, and other treats ($159 plus shipping from Zabars.com; $5.99 for a quart of soup at the store).
Until the Second Avenue Deli is reborn, here are some good chicken soups that you can have delivered:
FreshDirect delivers to many parts of the city; you’ll make their $40 minimum easily if you throw in some Jell-O, tissues, cough drops, and a few bottles of Vitamin Water.
West Village: Bonsignour adds the noodles to their chicken soup when you call, so they’re never too mushy ($5.25 per bowl).
East Village: Teresa’s chicken noodle soup is a cut above typical diner fare, but it comes at a greasy-spoon price ($3 per pint).
Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, Midtown East: Grand Sichuan, better known for dandan noodles bathed in sinus-clearing chile oil, also makes one of the city’s most flavorful broths from chickens they buy live and “process” themselves. Try the sliced chicken-and-pea-shoot soup ($8.95).
Upper West Side: The two branches of Flor de Mayo cover a wide delivery area and offer chicken noodle soup ($2.30), hearty Peruvian daily soups, or “asopao de pollo,” soupy chicken and rice ($8.25). — Zoe Singer
