Sainsbury's tomato and basil soup

It's really nice. A powerful tomato flavour with big chunks of tomato and and bits of onion, and you can see the basil, which I like. I'm not a big fan of thick, smooth soup that kind of coats your teeth and this isn't and doesn't. I don't understand why people like soup to have no bits - it's just boring. Anyway, I sometimes have half a pot but today I had a whole. And I grated lots of parmesan on the top - living dangerously!

Wagamama...

Is a great, big con. I can't understand why so many people are taken in... To be fair, I've only been there twice, but that was enough for me to dislike the chain. They pride themselves on their noodle soups so the first time I visited Wagamama (Covent Garden branch) I chose the kare lomen, which they describe as 'a spicy soup made from lemongrass, coconut milk, shrimp paste, chillies, fresh ginger and galangal, served with ramen noodles and garnished with grilled prawns, beansprouts, cucumber, lime and fresh coriander'.

Sounds lovely, don't you think? It looked ok (the similar chicken kare lomen can be seen to the left) and was garnished with a few sprigs of fresh coriander and a wedge of lime. I delved in with my chopsticks but was soon disappointed. There were three butterflied prawns, decidedly overcooked, in a muddy coloured bowl of thin soup which contained a large handful of beansprouts, shredded cucumber and noodles. The soup tasted nice, I could pick out the lemongrass and chilli flavours, but that was about it. Beansprouts and cucumber (and noodles) have to be the most boring, tasteless and cheap fillers for any meal, and at £8.50 a bowl, with 3 prawns and not much else - the sum of the ingredients must have been just a few pence - it's horribly overpriced. And then I must account for the appalling, rude service, the way they rush you to order, the very expensive drinks and how they allow for their erratic service by stating they won't bring your table's meals together (or even within the same half an hour, as we found) as they 'want to ensure the freshness of your food'.

My second visit was just as bad. As I was aware that the prawn dishes arrived with very few of their main ingredient, I chose chicken, and was disappointed again. I pointedly chose a different noodle soup - the chicken itame - noodle soups are their 'signiture dishes'. Yet again, the bowl was stuffed full of beansprouts and not much else. However, a friend did choose some deep-fried duck dumplings (duck gyoza) which were tasty and contained a good amount of duck, particularly for the price... but I can get nicer duck in my local vietnamese.

Wagamama is inexplicably popular - it is not good value, the food is shoddy and it has rude service, yet people still continue to rave about it. All I can think of is that it must have a great marketing team behind it and someone, somewhere must be rubbing their hands in glee over how much they are conning their customers.

I can feel the burn

17/10/06

I've been trying to save money by bringing my lunches into work for the past few months, but I'm getting increasingly bored of them. At first I varied the food - from salads made in the morning, to leftovers from the night before, or more usually a selection of toppings for ryvitas - smoked salmon and cream cheese (a pricier option), tuna with a twist (by John West, I recommend ovendried tomato and herb or lime and black pepper) with tomato, or cheddar cheese and cucumber, or cold meats and a veg, but I am now tired of home-arranged lunches. I want to be able to make spontaneous decisions about my choice of tucker. It's especially hard to stick to the homemade when there's a 'restaurant' (canteen) downstairs with a sandwich bar, a pretty good salad bar, jacket potatoes, soup and a couple of hot meals - it's not even as if I have to leave the building to change my mind and buy my lunch. Today my willpower was flaking and I decided to ditch my tuna with a twist, tomatoes and ryvita lunch option, knowing they would last until tomorrow, in favour of the 'restaurant'. I stood in the centre, looking around at all the options, but none appealed. Eventually I chose tomato and herb soup (quite thin but fairly tasty) with a chunk of bread (I wanted brown but the white bread chunks were twice the size so I chose one of those) and as I passed by the fridges on my way to pay, I snatched a tub of grated cheddar. Which really made the difference. But as I sampled a spoonful of soup with melting cheddar, I realised it was too hot. I had made the foolish mistake of taking a spoonful from the middle, rather than nibbling my way around the outside as it cooled down enough to eat. And, in public at least, there's not much you can do about a burning cheesy tomato mess in your mouth apart from swallow. So I did. And now I've burnt my tongue and my throat. They are sore. And I wish I'd just stuck with my boring lunch from home.

Sweet and Spicy Sunday

10/10/06

On Sunday I realised the fridge was almost bare. I had to go shopping but I simply couldn't face it. I also knew we had some big cooked prawns that needed eating and some fruit left over from my fruit basket. It was like Ready Steady Cook - what can I make with what I've got? We were starving so I decided to concoct something simple, sweet and spicy - and fast. I sliced a yellow pepper and stir-fried it with slightly old and floppy pak choi and fresh ginger in some chilli-infused olive oil. Meanwhile I chopped up a few rounds of the big pineapple and the end of a pack of cherry tomatoes (I didn't have a lot to work with!). I squeezed the juice of a lime and poured it in to the wok, adding the prawns, pineapple and cherry tomatoes to warm through and a pinch of crushed chillis at the same time. It smelt and looked surprisingly nice, but it needed something else, and I suddenly knew where I was headed - a South Asian-inspired soup. I sloshed in half a can of coconut milk, grated some nutmeg on the top and some black pepper, left it simmering for a couple of minutes and voila! It was ready. It may have been hastily shoved together from a mishmash of fridge and cupboard ingredients, but it was delicious. I knew I should get my camera to record its colourful prettiness, but I'm afraid I couldn't wait to eat it. Yes - my greed won. I am ashamed. Next time, maybe I'll have the willpower to wait...