Naked Lunch

When I buy myself lunch in town now, it is usually because I’ve been very disorganised in the morning and not had a ton of porridge or made myself a healthy, nutritious packed lunch. This happens to me all the time, because while my intentions are recessionarily pure, the reality is a frantic mess punctuated by food and takeaway coffees on the run.

I met Peter for lunch the other day in Nude on Suffolk St. I had Chunky Vegetable soup, though I dearly wanted something more substantial. I am not a soup person, but I am willing to embrace all soups across the nation, and recognise their inherent goodness – if they are made properly. It’s very easy to make a good soup, and apart from the best stock base you can find, generosity of ingredients is the key. That is, put things in your soup.

Nude’s Chunky Vegetable Soup cost €5.25, and maybe it’s because I never buy soup out, but I was shocked. I nearly launched into an elderly lady-style rant about how disgraceful it all was, but the staff at Nude are lovely, so I didn’t. The soup was really just a big bowl of hot water with a few teensy carrots, bits of forlorn celery and onion floating in it, and copious amounts of parsley thrown over to hide the soup’s shame. Result: I was hungry all afternoon, and I felt guilty for spending so much money when I should have obviously whipped up my own delicious homemade soup the night before.

Peter had a filled baked potato, which was €3.95. Now why didn’t I spot that on the menu? This was much better value, a substantial feed for a fairish price (we are in the city centre after all). So what though? Baked potato schmato – they are the easiest things in the world to bang up to a decent profit. Just like soup.