All posts by Armand

Personal

Le Pain Quotidien soup

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Does passion about bread translate to passion about soup?

Le Pain Quotidien, those Belgian bakers that make our daily bread, also make soup. This was my lunch for today – organic red pepper and carrot. No idea on calorie count, so can’t do my standard review but…

Taste? Meh. It was OK. Not enough spice. Carrot marries to coriander so well, its kind of a mystery to me as to why anyone would leave the carrot unpaired with some healthy spice.

Fillingness? Generally sceptical of pure veg soups without meat or a pulse in there – just not substantial enough. The bread it came with is awesome though, a nice walnut rye and a really lovely piece of artisan white french stick.

So I’ll probably try their soup again… but maybe not this one.

Film

The Infidel Movie – Baddiel, Djalili, Schiff & co…

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…and not forgetting my brother – The Infidel Movie is is the next film due for release from Slingshot’s slate, and tonight we got invited to the first UK screening of it – for ‘cultural influencers’, and apparently siblings who blog incessantly about soup…

I was honoured, as ever, to be included in the audience which included not a small number of celebrities, luminaries, writers, producers, directors and friends, and delighted and proud to enjoy this wonderfully heartwarming, funny, tightly orchestrated, beautifully soundtracked film.

For those not in the know, it’s the story of MAHMUD NASIR (Djalili), the ‘Homer Simpson’ of Islam, finding out that he has to impress his son’s father-in-law-to-be (a fundamentalist Islamic cleric) within an hour of discovering that he was adopted, and his real/birth parents are actually Jewish. He seeks council from his nemesis, Yank Jewish London Cabbie LENNY (Schiff), and tutelage in what it means to be a good Jew.

As controversial as that might potentially sound, the film manages to handle the tension and controversy without descending into twee-ness; it delivers a happy ending without a Deus Ex Machina, the music and pacing and humour is wonderful, the characterisation is compelling and the story is heartwarming in the extreme. I find myself wanting to go to both a muslim wedding and a bar mitzvah, befriend Richard Schiff and go drinking with Omid (although as a Baha’i he probably doesn’t drink…)…

Anyway, needless to say I recommend it, and I hope you all go and see it in the cinemas when it is released, around April time I think (become a Facebook Fan to get the news as it comes), and buy it on DVD or Blu-Ray when it comes out later in the year.

It is a wonderful movie…

Food

Sainbury’s ‘Taste the Difference’ green split pea and ham soup review

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Description: “A classic warming combination of green split peas and ham finished with double cream.” Yep, about right.

Health: Only OK – 406 calories for the pot, low in fat and sat fat, not quite so low in sodium, not great on fibre.

Taste: Standard – good, reasonably plentiful chunks of ham and bacon, a good amount of juicy pea, a rich, creamy soup base – there’s nothing not to like (assuming you have fondness for pea and ham). However… there’s nothing particularly interesting or exciting about it.

Full-o-meter: Eh, OK. You’d expect it to be better but the poor fibre content and relatively low protein score (it’s more a pea soup than a ham soup – and rightly so) means you’ll be hungry not too long after this (unless you have it with bread).

Verdict: 3.5/5. It probably deserves 4 but I’m just not inspired by it. I guess I’m not really a ‘classic’ soups guy – I like a bit of edge in my soups.

Food

Marks & Spencer green Thai spiced chicken soup review

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Description: “A blend of British chicken, Jasmine rice and water chestnuts in an aromatic Thai spiced broth.” Poor show on the chicken, and wish I’d noticed that it was described as “broth” when I bought it, which is an euphemism for “watery gunk.”

Health: OK-ish at 390 calories for the pot, but low on protein and fibre and relatively high on sat fat. Damnit.

Taste: Meh. Watery soup, absent chicken and the inexplicable presence of water chestnuts (which should not be present in anything, as far as I’m concerned) makes this pretty mediocre. Yes, it tastes of “green Thai spice” (whatever that is) but its correlation to green curry is as a McDonald’s chicken McNugget is to a whole roast chicken – distant and only recognisable once someone’s told you.

Full-o-meter: I suspect its going to be WEAK, given the poor textures and nutritional value.

Verdict: 1/5. My lowest rating ever. Seriously, M&S, even the ‘1’ is being charitable. You can do better.

Food

Marks & Spencer Moroccan style spiced chicken soup review

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Description: “A fragrant, lightly spiced chunky blend of vine ripen tomatoes, chickpeas, British chicken and red & green lentils.” Well, mostly right. It’s not lightly spiced, there’s about a metric tonne of cumin in there, but otherwise, about right.

Health: It’s OK – 390 calories for the 600g pot, v. low on sat fat (although reasonable about of actual fat), and obv. v. high on fibre.

Taste: Hrm. This isn’t the first “Moroccan chicken soup” I’ve tasted and IMHO this is inferior to both Pret & even Sainsbury’s attempts. Overkill on the spice front doesn’t make the soup spicy so much as heavy and sludgy and the tomato flavour is almost completely lost. That said, it’s “Moroccan style” and think it does serve as a kind of tribute; the consistency and textures (spicing notwithstanding) are otherwise OK and the chicken, chickpeas and lentils taste as you’d expect from M&S – good quality produce in action.

Full-o-meter: Very good. This is a heavy soup, it should keep you going.

Verdict: 3/5. Not bad, but simply not as tasty as other soups carrying a similar name. Won’t be high on my list to have again soon.

Food

Waitrose tomato, lentil & chorizo soup review

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Description: “A thick hearty soup of red lentils, tomatoes and chorizo seasoned with garlic, black pepper and smoked paprika.” Yep.

Health: Not bad, although heavy-ish for a pot this size – 422 calories for 600g. Low in sat fat, good amount of fibre.

Taste: I do like these Waitrose soups. Rich, thick red lentils, with a nice sharp tang from the tomatoes and a good amount of seasoning accompanied every now and then with a rewarding salty chew of chorizo. Yum.

Full-o-meter: Only had a half pot (with toast) but imagine this would keep you going for a reasonable amount of time.

Verdict: 4/5. A good one; more chorizo, more spice would have boosted the score (I like the spicy chorizo!), likewise a slightly lower calorie count. But a good option!

Food

Home made pizza

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Made delicious home-made pizza last night. Followed a recipe similar to this one for the base (minus the sugar and polenta) and this one for the sauce.

Delicious. Although as when making Roti Canai, I found that I couldn’t spread the pizza base easily without tearing it without quite a bit of olive oil. The end result was crisp, not too bready, and very tasty. In retrospect, a little brown sugar in with the pizza sauce might have added a nice sweetness (or maybe some red pepper, like the Domino’s guys have done with their redesign).

Amanda thought the balance was slightly out as the sauce was very rich and heavy and the crust very light – we could probably have addressed some of this by blitzing the chunky tomatoes or using passata instead of chopped tomatoes in the sauce. Might try that the next time.

Topped lovingly with chorizo, portobello mushrooms and low-fat mozzarella (diet ongoing, after all!). Recommended.

Personal

Vinturi wine aerator

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I’ve given two of these Vinturi wine aerators to people who love wine as gifts recently and thought it’d be worth a blog post when I saw that Epic Portions had done a review.

For those not in the know, the wine aerator lets you pour a single glass of wine and instantly aerate it – run air through it – which does a number of things. It helps break down the tannins, softening the taste of the wine, and according to Epic Portions improves the nose, body and finish of the wine.

From my experience with it, it definitely does improve the taste of wine, whether its is a budget bottle that needs growing up, or an expensive bottle that needs time to breath. It’s also brilliant for people that want to have a glass of wine per night and then seal up the bottle with a wine vacuum pump.

I’m slightly bemused by the fact that there’s a version for white wine as (a) I can’t see it not being the same thing and (b) I can’t see it helping, most white wine I’ve had seems to oxidize badly on over-aeration (not to mention the fact that it may warm too much).

Nonetheless, it gets my thumbs up as a clever gift idea.

Food

Marks & Spencer chicken, barley & root vegetable soup review – simply fuller longer

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Description: “A light broth of chicken of chicken, vegetables, pearl barley and smoked bacon.” Other than the bacon, which was missing, this is about right. Emphasis on the carrots and potatoes.

Health: 200 calories for a 400g pot, which is good, but not particularly high on protein or fibre, so… meh.

Taste: Meh. Vegetables suspended in light, heavily spiced broth. Cabbage in broth does taste pretty good but when that’s the height of praise… it’s basically standard chicken soup and therefore totally uninspired.

Full-o-meter: Rubbish. 200 calories, low fibre, low protein… needed toast to top me up to 400 calories AND I broke and had a cookie too, which is my own damn fault, but not helped by the meagreness of the soup.

Verdict: 2/5. Not having this one again. It didn’t taste actively unpleasant, but wasn’t good in any substantive way.