What do you eat when you need comfort? The answer varies depending on where you’re from, but it’s likely some form of broth, served steaming in a bowl.
In the US, it may be chicken noodle soup, while Italians might crave nonna’s homemade pastina in brodo, tiny pasta in a simple vegetable or bone broth. Across Asia, it’s congee and other rice porridges simmered slowly in water or stock, cooked by Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Indonesian mothers for their children. In Eastern Europe, it’s borscht, a sour beetroot soup often made with meat stock and sauteed vegetables that’s widely associated with Ukraine cuisine.
Across continents, stocks and broths are woven into cultural and familial memory. They are what we reach for when we are ill, when we need to stretch ingredients or when we feel homesick, and in some traditions, what we serve at moments of celebration. They rarely command attention on their own – yet they form the backbone of countless cuisines.
And wherever they’re eaten, they warm the soul as much as the body.
