For Centuries, These Asian Recipes Have Helped New Moms Recover From Childbirth
Postpartum soups and stews have traditionally been prepared for new moms by Asian grandmothers and aunts, the recipes passed down orally. A new cookbook seeks to preserve them before they're lost.
Khanh-Hoa Nguyen stirs a pot of green papaya and pigs' feet soup. The clear broth and pale green chunks of unripe melon are redolent with fish sauce, the way her own mother prepared the soup after Nguyen's sister gave birth.
After her second year at the University of California at Berkeley, Nguyen was spending the summer at her parents' home in Los Angeles, watching her mother prepare big pots of Vietnamese postpartum foods for her sister.
"I don't think I would have known if
