My mom's cure for the cold was definitely forcing me to go to school as usual, except layered in two jackets instead of one. And then when things got really bad, there were early morning cartoons and steaming bowls of Korean soup-maybe a spicy yukgaejang, or a Korean version of chicken soup (with her secret Asian sauce thrown in).

Cherry flavored Tylenol was okay, but Nyquil was enough to make me break out into a fit.

From about the time I was 16, every time I got sick, my mom made me hot toddies. It was the only time (besides holidays) that I was allowed to have alcohol, so that by itself probably helped me feel better, haha.

When I went to Vietnam a few years ago, I felt myself starting to get sick and I wanted nothing else but a hot toddy. I didn't know where I'd get all the ingredients (obviously you could quickly come by tea, but I had no idea where to get honey and whiskey at 9:30 at night), and my friends ended up convincing me to get drinks with them at a bar. Lo and behold, the bar we went to had hot toddies on the menu!!! The drink is pure magic, I swear.

Oh I wish my mom was that nice she thought we would get tougher by fighting our way through the cold do everything yourself approach. Nice. My dad would at least get us some juice of our choice, right now I'm battling pneumonia and hot showers are my favorite, I have no appetite except for really spicy foods so I'm thinking spicy things make me feel better

Homemade soup-my mom always had a pot of soup on the stove.

My mom's cure for the cold? A piping hot bowl of chicken arroz caldo, rice porridge flavored with chicken broth, fish sauce, ginger and lots of fried garlic, sliced green onions and a spritz of calamnsi! Works all the time!

I'm Australian, and didn't have a mum but I did have a spectacular dad.

He would put a teaspoon of Vegemite in a cup of boiled water, and stir it to make a vegetable-ish broth.

I still love it to this day.

Miso soup and ginger tea for stomach aches.

Homemade matzah ball soup with a red popsicle for dessert.

Just a couple weeks ago I was complaining to my mom about being out of TheraFlu Nighttime. "How am I possibly going to sleep with this cold?" Her advice is the first picture in your post: whisky, honey, and lemon, equal amounts, hot. She said her grandma always made this for her when she was sick. Unfortunately my mom must have decided this wasn't good parenting -- she never made it for me while I was growing up.

Spoonful of honey and homemade lemonade!
My mom also used to give me bubble baths when I had the aches. Nice.

Great question. Actually just made this myself when I was sick a few weeks ago. Worked miracles.

Dissolve a cube (or tablespoon, if you've got the fancy stuff) of vegetable bouillon in boiling water, and toss in a few cloves of minced garlic. Loosely beat an egg in a small bowl, then drizzle into the boiling water while stirring so that the water cooks it. Mmmm. Egg drop soup! Sorta.

Serve in a mug, curled up in an extra-fluffy bathrobe and sweats. Preferably with episodes of Arrested Development running in the background and a box of tissues on standby.

My Mom's cure-all was a bowl of vegetable and beef soup and cinnamon rolls. I think she just threw those together one day since we were low on supplies, but it wound up sticking. Every memory I have of being sick as a child involves that meal.

It works pretty well for heartache, too. It was the first meal I could stomach after she passed away.

@nomnom I think we had the same mother. She always made hot spicy soup because she absolutely believe that gochujang would fix any cold or flu.

My mom swears by tea made with cloves, cinnamon and ginger for colds. Anything that goes in traditional chai (ie non-Starbucks) has magical healing properties according to her.

Jun Belen hit the nail on the head: a comforting rice soup with a generous squirt of lemon juice to get a dose of Vitamin C. I also am a fan of sinigang, sour tamarind soup, to which I add generous amounts of Sriracha to help with congestion.

@nomnom- When I read "My mom's cure for the cold was definitely forcing me to go to school as usual...", I knew you were Asian! Like you, nothing short of death would have caused my Chinese mom to keep me home from school. Our cure was jook usually with salted pork, thousand year old eggs and the occasional salted duck egg.

avgolemono soup! which is just chicken soup with tempered egg and lemon juice. she would actually make a real chicken soup with a real chicken, but now that i live by myself, just good chicken broth with orzo thrown in and then the avgo (egg) lemono (lemon, obviously), works just fine.

@Heathery @dailypujas

:) My mom tells this story about how one day the school told her she couldn't let me go to school because I would infect the other kids, and how that confused her.

salted pork (or fish) is so good. my boyfriend is chinese, so for a long time, i was betraying my korean roots by eating out with his family.

Well, my mom is Irish, but she was also of the "cold? what cold? It's Tuesday." school of thought. But the after school snack would be Campbell's tomato soup with oyster crackers.

My Italian grandmother believed in a warm bath, a good smear of Vick's VapoRub, and a chamomile tea with lemon & honey. This also resulted in school the next day.

My dad favors "the Hemingway cure." A shot of whiskey, with or without the civilizing influence of tea and lemon. He first let me try this at 16, with the admonishment "don't make a habit of it."

My mom's cure for the cold was homemade chicken soup. If it ... um ... wouldn't stay down, it was a diet of flat warm gingerale and dry toast. When I got cold gingerale, I knew I was on the mend. :D

Now-a-days, I drink ginger tea instead of gingerale. When I switch to black tea with honey and lemon, I'm feeling better. I still make homemade chicken soup when I feel under-the-weather though, but I tend more to follow Mark Bittman's directions than my mother's, if only because I can't find Claude's chicken frico in the stores. :D

An itchy wool sock, slathered with Vicks Vaporub, pinned around our necks before bedtime. We hated those things so much.

My dad believed strongly in Vitamin C and steam, so it was lots of orange juice and hot baths for us. As a grown-up, I also go for chicken soup with lots of lemon juice and chili paste. And if that doesn't work, Neo Citran and sleep.

My mom had 8 kids so having a sick one home messed with her insane schedule of laundry, cleaning, and cooking. If you stayed home, you stayed in bed. No messy food permitted there but maybe gingerale with ice cubes and a twisty straw!

If we had a fever, my mom would pile on the covers to "break" the fever. That was the bad part. But then she would give us hot lemonade and vodka! so we put up with the covers.

my mom would make a stew - with beef, marrow bones, vegetables and all. and place a cut-open onion beside the bed.

and my dad would make a mug of black tea with honey, lemon and whiskey. or hot beer. or for getting back on your feet again: an egg yolk, beaten with 1 tablespoon sugar, mixed into a glass of red wine.

For colds I only got cold medicine and maybe Gatorade or Powerade. But if I had the flu I got the said Gatorade or Powerade and come Campbells Chicken Noodle Soup or Ramen. If I couldnt keep that down it was broth, ice chips, or warm jello. I hate hate hate Jello but when it is warm it's awesome.

Now when me or my husband get sick it's Sleepy Time Tea with honey and lemon, and some sort of soup. Usually a very brothy soup.

Badgering the doctor until he gave me antibiotics, in spite of him insisting they wouldn't fix me.

Ah, the 80's...

A tangy sweet "tea" made from two tablespoons of raw apple cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon of raw honey and a pinch of cayenne in hot but not boiling water.
Sipped in the morning and before bed.

It really does clear out the head congestion and the cayenne help a sore throat.

It's strangely tasty...substitute the water with a little olive oil and you have a delicious salad dressing :) Feel better!

Ditto with the making me go to school as a cure!
Also, ginger, garlic, lemon and honey "tea". I still use this one actually.

My mother's Catholic, Texan family always made matzoh ball soup. So delicious, even if it was from the Manischewitz box.

Warm milk with honey. Tasted awful (I later have found out I'm allergic to honey, maybe that's why).

Hmmm...I could never convince my kids to try what my mom would give me: hot lemonade.

it wasn't something she made, but any time we were sick to our stomachs, my mom would give us vernor's ginger ale (it was always that brand, not canada dry). i just remember you'd put your face over it to drink and the bubbles would make you cough a little. it was great.

My new favorite go-to soup for when I'm sick is this one from Cooking Light: Coconut Curry Chicken Soup

Eating that with a chaser of original green death flavored NyQuil and you're good by th morning.

Mom's aresenal? Flat sprite, chicken soup, and saltines. Worked then, but now I've got a better not-so-secret weapon. I'll give the recipe to anyone who'll listen, really. It has battled off every cold this winter in under 24 hrs. Kryptonite for the sniffles!

Home with a cold? My mother would set the sickie up on the sofa with our bed pillows and a blanket, and serve hot tea (w/milk and sugar) and toast on a sweet little tray. The toast cut in quarter wedges and the tea in a china cup and saucer - very fancy and it always made me feel better.

@blogkitten, "original green death flavored NyQuil" is my current weapon of choice. There is something about how horrible it is that is reassuring.

Not my mother's cure but I'm in the hot toddy group. Sleepytime tea, a hefty shot of whisky, some lemon and honey and you are golden. Maybe its because it helps me sleep so well when I am sick!
Oh, and a bowl of pho!!

I am known for my best damn cold cure. It's OJ, vodka, and a few splashes of tabasco. The OJ's vitamin C supposedly helps your immune system, the tabasco clears out your sinuses something wicked, and the vodka makes you forget you are sick.

we have something we call the "Night Night Drink". Warm a cup of milk + a shot of bourbon + a good drizzle of honey.

You sleep like a baby so your body can do the work of mending without the hallucinatory effects of Nyquil.

Sometimes we sip it when we're healthy but want a little comfort. Mmmmmmm.

Mom usually makes sopas (chicken macaroni soup with a splash of milk) or chicken rice porridge with a lot of ginger.

It was grandma's not mom dolling out the cures:

Her standbys for everything - Honey or Pickles. Honey was great for sunburns, to in tea to anything feeling sore.

Now pickles is one I still use - feeling sick eat pickles lots of them. Also feel free to put pickle juice left on your fingers in your ears or just in side your nose. Now writing this I realize my grandma maybe just a wee bit off her rocker but I can't count how many colds I've battled down by eating pickles.

My mom--who, by the way, was a gourmet chef before she was a mom--would make me chicken soup when I was sick...and by "chicken soup" I mean chicken bouillon broth with minute rice and dried parsley flaked in. I have no idea why she made this (like I said, she is a FABULOUS cook), but it always made me feel better. I still kind of crave it, now, when I'm sick!

Hoarhound candy for sore throat. Drinking vinegar for pickle juice for prevention.

My mom would give me some Dimeatap (sp?) in purple grape flavor and send me to school unless I had a fever. Then I was sent to grandma's house where I got Campbell's tomato soup and grilled cheese and her homemade remedies - which I don't know what was in them.

However I used to fake sick to get the Dimeatap... mmm... sickly sweet purple "grape" syrup.

there are so many
my moms -
she used to give me dry roasted clove to chew
grate ginger and squeeze out the juice ,mix with honey
mine
pepper rasam
chicken soup
my friends recommendation
onion garlic and ginger soup,..;-)

No solution really other than to tell me that my illness was due to 'the change in the weather' (a diagnosis I was offered for all my illnesses). Tonsillitis always got me lemonade and plain tea biscuits.

Great subject! My parents made us chicken congee (rice porridge) or thin rice noodles with pork and broth.

I think those two dishes are very traditional Chinese or Cantonese magical elixirs reserved for the sick.

Now that I am a grown up, I still look to these comfort foods for when I'm feeling under the weather.

I've also talked about magical elixirs in my blog:
http://bunnyeatsdesign.wordpress.com/2010/10/02/magical-elixir/

Bubur (Indonesian conjee). Now my (non-Indonesian) husband makes it for our toddler.

@cmcinnyc-"the hemingway cure"- Love it!

For colds we got consomme and little else- mum was of the starve a cold feed a fever school.

Tummy troubles got flat ginger ale and saltines. My dad however, swore by PIZZA of all things. Seems like the last thing you'd want when you're nauseous but he claimed it always worked wonders!

Chicken soup and boiled mint-lemon from mum for cold and Iranian sugar candy from dad for nausea.

I forgot that when we were kids my dad would have us drink a bit of blackberry brandy during those times when we were really nauseous. He claimed that you'd either "feel better" or you'd "throw up, then you'd feel better". Worked every time.

I would get either congee, a light rice porridge, plain or with chicken depending on the ailment. Or chicken broth with mung bean noodles. When mung bean noodles cook up they're clearish or glass looking. As a kid I would call them jellyfish noodles. :)

Also ginger ale w/ a little bit of grape juice.

Congee and / or some kind of hot soup, with all I the spicy condiments I like. I love it - if it's hot and spicy enough and there's tons of steam it clears up any congestion instantly! Umm not so good for the sore throat but I don't care, it's yummy. <3

My Japanese mom would often send me to school despite being sick. If it was bad enough the school would send me home and she would have no choice but to take me in. If it's really bad then she may consider taking me to the doctor.

But the few cures she used to give me was ginger tea with sugar, ginger ale or sprite, rice porridge, lots of tylenol.

Now a days, I crave lots of ginger and either of these two soups: hot and sour soup or Tom Kha without the chicken. Recently, it has come to my attention that fish has to be excluded since I keep breaking out in hives whenever I ingest it so I get Tom Kha is out for a while.

My mom gave me apricot nectar for a sore throat and used Vicks Vaporub and a steam humidifier at night for a cold. I go the spicy/pungent route now. I make rasam, a very spicy tomato soup, and also a tea consisting of fresh ginger, fresh garlic, and coriander seeds, which I boil down until it is very strong and then sweeten with honey. I know it sounds awful, but it doesn't taste nearly as bad as it sounds, and it's very effective.

hot water w/ lemon (none of this ginger/honey pollution!). also really good first thing in the morning, or after a hard-time at the bar....