It is reportedly the most popular dish among new mothers at Queen of Angels-Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, where half of the 80-90 new mothers recovering there order the restorative soup. More and more general patients are ordering the soup as well, the hospital said. The phenomenon started after Korea's CHA Medical Group took over the medical center from Tenet Healthcare Corp. in February.

"Seeing Korean mothers eating seaweed soup after childbirth, white, black, Latino and Armenian mothers as well as general patients are now asking for the dish,” CHA Medical Group executive director Kim Chun-bok said. “We serve about 100 bowls of seaweed soup a day, and about half of those go to non-Korean patients." Kim said other hospitals in the LA area frequented by Koreans such as Good Samaritan Hospital are following suit.

Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center's chief nutritionist said, "Since seaweed soup is rich in calcium and iodine, it's effective in contracting the uterus and stopping bleeding, so it helps in recovery after childbirth. As word gets round that the soup cleans the blood and promotes circulation, American patients who've never eaten seaweed soup are starting to choose it as a health food."

The CHA Medical Group plans to airlift a fresh shipment of Korean soy sauce for use in its seaweed soup to the U.S. When it acquired the hospital in February, the group sent over 100 liters of soy sauce bottled at a farm in Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, but the unexpected seaweed soup craze decimated supplies some six months ahead of schedule. "To provide Korean Americans with a taste of the old country, we plan to fly over soy sauce bottled right here in Korea, even if it is somewhat troublesome,” the group’s director said.

(englishnews@chosun.com )