• The Globe picks restaurants for every occasion, including dinner alone, dinner before a movie you don't really want to see, and ladies night.
• The Boston Marathon is tomorrow; time to load up on carbs.
• Fruit slices for Passover.
• The carbon footprint of food.
• Restaurant reviews: Mr. Chef's and Georgetown Grille
• This week's recipes: Traditional Chicken Soup, Brisket with Spanish Paprika, Sherry, and Olives, Rajas Poblanos Con Crema, and Chicken Breasts with Spring Vegetables in Cardamom Wine Broth.

OK, I'm confused. I was fairly certain that I made the best chicken noodle soup, but according to this recipe over at AOL Food (via AllRecipes.com), I don't. It's The Best Chicken Noodle Soup Ever.

There's nothing that warms my heart and other organs in the winter than a nice bowl of chicken noodle soup, with big chunks of chicken and carrots and celery in a seasoned broth. In fact, I'm going to make chicken noodle soup for dinner tonight. Not sure if I'll make this one (don't have the whole chicken or some of the other ingredients), but it sounds like a really good basic recipe to keep in your collection.

My real Jewish friends are off tonight having a "Break Passover" party, a little "celebration" where they're going to indulge in all those foods they couldn't eat for eight days - yeasted breads, cakes, pretty much anything that contains wheat, all of which were replaced during the Passover holiday with matzo.

Since the holiday is over, there might be a lot of leftover matzo. Sure, eating it at three meals for eight days, one might get sick of the hard, cracker-like flatbread, but no one ever gets sick of matzo ball soup. How could they? Matzo ball soup doesn't cause sickness, it cures it. It's known as Jewish penicillin, great for anytime of the year.

Since the time I read that the growth hormones given to  cows seeped into their milk and meat, I have been a little more particular about the food I put in my shopping basket. When I later learned that children are reportedly entering puberty earlier and earlier, due in part to their diets, I made a solemn vow to buy as much organic food as possible. This is a somewhat selfish act on my part, I have an overbearing, precocious 8 year-old daughter and the longer I can stave off her pubescent years, the safer my sanity .

That said, it is quite expensive to buy organic. Our weekly food tab for a family of five is astronomical, due in no small part to all the products without additives. So in an effort to eat healthily and impart a good work ethic on my kids, we are purchasing a flock of chicks from a nearby ranch family. We will feed them, clean their cages, watch them live a happy eight or ten weeks in the mountain air and then we will chop off their heads, pluck their feathers and make them into soup and cordon blu. I am looking forward to seeing the little peepers, feeding them and eating fresh chicken dinners, but I am somewhat hesitant about that middle death-by-beheading part. My mother and my daughter, Cassidy, had a practice outing several weeks ago where they caught up a rooster and a couple of old hens. The owner did the chopping deed and my mother and daughter plucked the beasts. The next day we enjoyed fabulous chicken soup and dumplings, made all the better by my daughter's blow by blow account of the previous day's efforts.

Will wonders at the Korean market never cease?! Sahm-gyae-tahng (that's my spelling, but others may Romanize it differently) is a Korean chicken soup made by boiling a whole young chicken that is stuffed with sweet rice, ginseng, and Korean dates (jujubes). It supposed to simmer for a long time on the stove top to draw all the nutrients out of the chicken's meat and bones, so it's supposedly served as a "healing" soup.

At the market, I came across sahm-gyae-tahng all ready to go in a bag - rice, dried ginseng, Korean dates, and even the seasonings. All you have to do is add a chicken and follow the directions on the package. Kind of like those Hormel add-your-own meat mixes.

Apparently, New York's nickname should have been "Chicken Soup City" and not the "Big Apple." Ed Levine tasted his way through a fair number of the city's tremendous chicken soup offerings while searching for the perfect bowl. The secret? Use your grandmother's recipe as a starting point - it's what the pros do. And slurp up some of the best in the city when you have the chance.

Utilizing other parts of the chicken, a recipe from Chef David Kinch turns chicken livers into a confit which rivals the taste and texture of foie gras.

Columnist Alex Witchel managed to overcome a bad experience with a silver finger bowl and dish out some advice on dealing with the unfamiliar at a dinner party.

Mark Kurlansky sees the city in the oyster's half shell and the Minimalist, Mark Bittman, makes puttanesca.

[photo NYT]

Even though mercury dipping below 72 degrees might make some shiver around these parts, it's still not very cold and wintry in Janaury in southern California.

But still, the calendar and the short daylight hours indicate that its winter, and that makes me want to curl up in a blanket by the fireplace with something warm and comforting to eat - even if that means the fireplace isn't on and I have to wear shorts and a tank top inside my blanket, sweating with my bowl of chicken soup.

Chicken soup is awesome, and just about every culture, cuisine, country has a version of soup with broth based on a bird and brimming with meat, vegetables, and almost always, some sort of carbohydrate, whether it's a noodle, a dumpling, or a matzo ball.  

1. Sahm-gyae-tahng is a Korean soup made by cooking a small chicken stuffed with sweet rice, dates and ginger until it falls apart in the pot.
2. Tom yum kai is the spicy chicken and mushroom soup redolent with lemongrass from Thailand. I am not a huge fan of Thai food (because I actually don't like lemongrass), but can always get by when a group goes out to eat because of this soup. 
3. Matzo ball soup is also known as Jewish penicillin. I love the time and care that goes into making the little matzo balls, and of course, since many of the delis in this area are open into the wee hours of the morning, I associate matzo ball soup with "hangover cure."
4. Good ol' chicken noodle soup is where it all began. My first experiences have always been from that red and white can, and I'm certain I've had that neon yellow powdered crap on a ski trip once, so I think this means that some time very soon, I will be trying my hand at this classic.
5. Tortilla soup is one of my favorites, though I have to wonder how healthy this "chicken soup" ends up being for me after adding guacamole, sour cream, and deep fried tortilla strips on top as "garnishes."

That's all the chicken soups I can think of for now, but I am sure there are more from all over the planet. I just have to find them before Spring time.