Sashimi porn-yes.

I should start off with a warning about portions at Sushi Suma. Only visit here if you are starving, and even then only go if you’ve taken the precautionary measures and arranged for an emergency stomach compartment or a switch with your dessert tank. Servings here are legendarily huge and service, well it’s an in and out, stuff-em-full sort of place. Four Supermodels could probably share a dinner box and I am including those annoying Supermodels that keep telling us “Oh yes I hardly ever diet! I eat as much as I want”.

This evening we are supposed to meet Rose and Ronald at 6.30pm but we are 15 minutes late. Rose and Ronald have been kicked off their table downstairs in the restaurant and have been asked to wait upstairs in the bar area. We are given a copy of the menu and we order the items upstairs with the no nonsense man with the keypad. In order to expedite turnover, orders are taken upstairs and when the food and table are ready, diners are guided downstairs. Despite there being a bar and having a captive, waiting (and thirsty) audience, there is no bar service as the no nonsense man (we assume the owner) is busy corralling diners. Luckily we are waiting less than 10 minutes when we are shown downstairs. It’s a curious layout, the dining area is small and the kitchen is comparatively huge – larger than the dining space. As we sit down, with the super tightly laid out tables, Rose comments about how loud it is.

Complimentary Appetiser

This vermicelli noodle salad is lightly seasoned with a sweet, vinegary taste.

Complimentary Agedashi Tofu

The complimentary agedashi tofu is a nice surprise as everyone receives one. It’s delicious and one of the better ones I’ve had with a perfectly seasoned sauce (I often find the sauce isn’t flavoursome enough) but this is just right.

Kaiso Salad $8.80

We’re given our Kaiso salad and the size gives us an indication of things to come. It’s huge with a mound of shredded cabbage and thick and thin seaweed. The seaweed itself isn’t highly seasoned or flavoured but the salad has a light dressing over it and a scattering of sesame seeds.

Cream Croquette with crab meat $6.80

The items I went crazy for in Tokyo were Cream Croquettes. These are small croquettes filled with the creamiest potato. I can’t really see or taste any crab meat but I do see a couple of corn kernels.

Other diner’s plates are set down next to us and we are aghast at how big they are. The Katsu meal at the table next to us had 8 huge pieces of katsu and their Tempura had a large variety of food. We see why the sizes are legendary.

Sushi Deluxe $16.80

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I adore soups but the one thing that prevents me from eating them more often for dinner is that I feel that they often lack body. This soup bears no such accusations, for when it is done, it is more like a tomato stew. With the onset of the brutal chill this month, I have been pushed into full soup making mode, almost kicking and screaming (where did the hot weather go? There was no warning or gentle easing). There are advantages to cold weather though: coats, boots and comfort food. And soup is undoubtedly comfort food, especially when it’s paired with crispy meatball croutons.

I admit I usually find croutons a bit of a disappointment unless they’re homemade. The ones that come in packets aren’t nearly as good as they look and one afternoon I was contemplating making my own croutons for a tomato soup when I saw that my bread really wasn’t anywhere near stale enough which meant that I needed to dry it out. So I considered a tastier version of the crouton which was more of a cross between a meatball and a crouton. Certainly the ratio of bread to meat was fairly similar which I knew would make it beautifully crispy and light. I always prefer to up the amount of fresh breadcrumbs if I am seeking comfort.

The soup was thicker (and therefore more satisfying) than I anticipated. Once I added the Orzo it sucked up a lot of the liquid although I didn’t think this was such a bad thing as it made the soup more full bodied. And in turn it meant that this was a brilliant standalone dish for a week day dinner.

So tell me Dear Reader, are you a Winter or Summer person? What do you like about that particular season?

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I was in my pajamas and my carrots were old.

This is not the way I like to start any post admittedly but it’s the brutal truth. It was a Sunday morning and it was cold. I was awoken by the loudspeaker from the Balmoral Burn charity run nearby and I wasn’t in a great mood. And because I had woken so early I had an excess of time and my first instinct was to cook. I needed to make a soup for my husband’s lunch that coming week and the carrots I had in the fridge were starting to look a little less appealing. They weren’t awful but they lost that smooth bright orange coat that they had only a couple of days before.

A friend and I were discussing the inevitable Winter weight gain. Well lamenting it was more like it. Stews, pastas and roasts are de rigeur whereas salads and sorbets are out. One way to try and counteract it is with this soup which is very low in fat but full of flavour. Other benefits are of course that it can be made vegetarian and is very inexpensive to make so there’s no reason not to try a bit of detoxing. If only for a meal or two.

Tell me Dear Reader, what are your tactics to avoid Winter weight gain or weight gain in general? Or do you surrender to Winter and come Summer take action?

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