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Food

Eat chicken laksa soup review – Big Bold @eat_news

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Description: From Eat – “A Malaysian classic…lots of noodles and chicken in a spicy coconut creamy soup. Garnished with spring onion, spinach and freshly chopped coriander.” Hrm, as a Malaysian I have to point out that this only bears a slight resemblance to a proper laksa. But that’s not necessarilly a bad thing.

Health: Just bad. For soup, I mean, which is still better than most sandwiches, but whilst the 367 calories is low for a lunchtime meal, the 1000+mg of sodium, the 11g of saturated fat, and the low fibre content loses this points.

Taste: Salty, chickeny, creamy, coconutty tastiness. Nothing bad about ths smooth noodle texture and the rich tasting chicken. Could do with a bit more spice to bring it to Malaysian Laksa standards, but imagine it has been toned down for the general population.

Full-o-meter: Ok ish, but I suspect I’m going to be hungry in an hour. The coconut in the soup stock makes it quite heavy for a small pot of soup.

Verdict: 3.5/5. Would get a 4 if it was healthier, as tasty, and will have it again in spite of myself.

Will try to compare this with the Pret variant, but with the wedding coming up next Saturday it may have to wait until my return from the Far East…

Food

Pret Moroccan chicken soup review

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Today being Hungarian goulash day at Eat, I had a look over at Pret‘s menu and decided I’d give it a try, despite some concerns over the size and flavoursomeness/health of the soups from friends on Twitter.

Description: A thick, tomato based soup dominated by Moroccan spices (cumin, chilli, paprika) and onion, with the odd lump of chicken and floating chickpea. Pret’s website lists ingredients: chicken, chick peas, onion, tomato, apricots, garlic, organic vegetable bouillon, jalapeno chilli, paprika, cumin, mint, coriander & cinnamon.

Health: At 306 calories for a 14 oz portion, this weighs in heavier on the calories but lighter on the portion than many Eat soups. But not terrible – it is pretty high in fibre and low on saturated fat and salt, which is good stuff.

Taste: Actually pretty good. Despite having spoiled my taste buds with the salty moreishness of Eat soups, this Pret offering manages to be tasty without needing to slap you in the face with sodium chloride. The soup is well spiced, the texture of the tomato and onion is just right and its a good eat the whole way through. That said, it is not as chunky as it should have been – more meat, more chickpeas, definitely needed.

Full-o-meter: Seems pretty good for a small portion – maybe the fibre content/chickpeas help.

Verdict: 4/5. A good first experience of Pret soups. I’ll probably go back there. However, the marketing hype is overplayed… on the cup is a message from someone (their founder?) talking about a customer complaining about their soup not being tasty enough, big enough, etc…. and how they’ve hired a big time soup chef, Nick Sandler, to sort them out. Well, Pret, good as your soup was today I think Eat still has you beat. So let’s see a bit more effort and yes – even bigger soup cups!