Beat winter blues with good old warm soup

OUT and ABOUT
Meeting colleagues for lunch on a day when winter felt properly descended — cold, windy and overcast — I wished for a cosy English pub, warm and fuggy, with a fire and hot food. Our rendezvous was convenient 42 Cork Road and in the absence of pub food was hoping for winter soup — nothing better on a cold day. The plastic sides were lowered on the verandah and with a couple of gas heaters it was snug and warm — but unfortunately also full — so we had to settle for the chilly garden. It was a huge disappointment to find no soup. In fact the menu seems to give no acknowledgement at all to the change of seasons and features mostly the same items as on a summer visit more than a year ago. Rather puts paid to the idea of writing a menu on a blackboard, surely supposed to ring the changes — not to never rub anything out — except perhaps the prices!
I find Cork Road expensive for a café. Other than chicken empanidas, the only items US$10 and under were salads and it definitely wasn’t a day for those. Otherwise all courses are at least US$16 and no obvious winter specials. I scanned the blackboard several times but found nothing more exciting than what seems to be standard restaurant fare in many outlets in the capital — fillet steak, tilapia or chicken. After the imaginative combinations I noticed at the Mill last week — it felt boring. I eventually settled for the empanidas — minced chicken in pastry served with a sweet chillie sauce — and too much iceberg lettuce. But with a tasty filling inside crisp pastry, they were hot and did much to achieve inner warmth!
Service was somewhat indifferent — maybe the waiters were also focusing on the warm indoors — but we enjoyed the sweet biscuit that came with the cappuccino.
Soup is the perfect winter warmer and an easy and satisfying supper, which with some forethought, doesn’t take long to prepare. Pulses, like peas, beans and lentils are great in soup being nutritious, tasty and filling. Only drawback is the advance preparation — soaking and cooking which can be a very long process. I usually cook a lot at once and freeze the extras so they just need to be thawed before being added to soups. Accompanied by good bread — made of wheat or maize — it’s an easy way to produce a nourishing and complete meal.
So far this winter the best soup has been oxtail and beans which came together from left over oxtail stew (made with onions, carrots and red wine) and pre-cooked white beans lurking in the freezer.  Shredded the meat off the two remaining oxtail bones, added a tin of tomatoes and another of  water plus a couple of cups of cooked butter beans, salt, pepper and herbs — and served us a thick and tasty soup.
So no reason not to find winter soup specials at local outlets. A couple of days later at Queen of Hearts the soup special was an interesting combination of potato and lettuce. Served in a one portion bright red Le Creuset pot accompanied by a matching red heart shaped tart case filled with sweet butter to spread on the delicious home made brown bread, it was nicely flavoured and very filling. The little pot kept it hot and for US$6 — much more like it for a quick café meal. My friend enjoyed a huge sandwich — on the same delicious brown bread, stuffed with chicken, apple and mayo. (US$7)
So more soup please to keep warm this winter.
– g.jeke@yahoo.com