If you are seeing a picture of tom kha gai then it is safe to assume that I feel like crap. 

Sometimes you just don't need a recipe to know what your body craves. This is one of those days, because I have a bad cold. One of those I don't want to do anything at all kind of colds.

I have been battling it for 5 days. It started typically enough with a scratchy throat. By the next day I had a stuffy nose, but no fever. In fact if it weren't for the stuffy nose I would have said I felt just fine. I had just about convinced myself that it was not a cold at all, just a mild allergy flair up.

But, alas sometime in the night these sniffles moved into my chest and sat down with a great heavy thud! My chest is so congested that it actually feels as if a great big bear is sitting on it while sticking a long feather down my throat. Tickling away for his own amusement. The tickle leads to a cough, the cough leads to hack and the hack brings up some of the nastiest stuff you'd ever want to see.

I used to think that the only thing for a cold was hot tea and toast. But I have learned there is another sort of relief and I have come to swear by it. If you live in Los Angeles long enough, you find that you shed your old skin and develop all sorts of new habits. The simple, comforting and spicy Thai soup known as Tom kha gai or Tom kha kai is one of those skins you develop. One of those adopted experiences that become completely your own. So now whenever I have a cold, it's this soup and this soup alone that makes me feel better.

God Bless the thriving Thai community in Los Angeles.

It's easy to cook clams. Heat them in a flavorful broth a few minutes, then watch them pop open their shells and say "Hello Gorgeous!"

That's my favorite line from Funny Girl. Though I don't think Barbra Streisand's Ms. Brice meant clams– or shellfish for that matter. Still I impersonate her tonality whenever faced with a big bowl of steaming clams. "Hello Gorgeous!"

You wouldn't think of clams as gorgeous at first glance. And that's my point. Clams are sweet. Clams are briny. Doesn't that seem like an oxymoron?

But it may be these two opposing forces that make clams so unexpectedly sure of themselves. It gives them the Fanny Brice style self-esteem to unabashedly mingle with all sorts of partners. One of the boldest combinations I can think of is turmeric and roasted garlic. Turmeric and roasted garlic are great place to start for most any shellfish. Trust me. It's a fact.

But habanero, turmeric and roasted garlic is really something to look at! Add stunningly fresh shellfish to this trio and you too will be quoting Funny Girl. So come on. Bring a large pot of this flavorful combination to a boil. Add clams and cover the pot. Lower the heat and shake a few times while they simmer. In less than 8 minutes the shells should have opened and the shellfish will be fragrant and cooked to perfection. Toss with linguine... "Hello Gorgeous!"

This is the final entry in my week long series of summer salads. It's a Farro & Tomato Salad with Basil & Anchovies and it comes (practically word for word) from Judy Rodgers.

I tend to be a tinkerer when it comes to recipes (if I follow one at all) but there are some cooks whose style and choices just click with me and the way I like to do things. Judy Rodgers is one such cook. She thinks about food and it's preparation. She gets all wonky about technique. So I know that every step and every ingredient really is all it needs to be. No more no less. I can't improve on that kind of methodology, so I don't even try.

Especially when it comes to an ingredient like farro. It's an ancient grain. But it's new to my kitchen. It's been a staple to the masses since Roman times, but suddenly the chic set has embraced it too. I first had it at one of Mario Batali's New York restaurants in the 1990s (in the form of a pan-fried cake) but this is my first attempt at cooking with it at home.

If you are unfamiliar with farro, well it looks a bit like brown rice. But it's a closer cousin to barley. The best version is the whole-grain version, partly due to all those healthful advantages. When you buy farro look for whole-grains that have been partially processed and have the brown outer hull removed. These are called "pearled", "perlato", "semiperlato", or "decorticato".