What to do with left over curry ?

Last week was a particularly busy week with friends visiting and organizing a potluck, in which I cook - not one, but two - huge pots of curry, which resulted in leftovers.

During the week - we've been eating out at our old favorite places, and thus all my leftover curry has been neglected. It was only on Monday - that I remembered that I would need to work on those leftover ! (otherwise I would waste food again .. which I am trying not to do)

What to do with left over curry ?? One of the things I liked when I was in NYC was these curry puff pastries that they sell at bakeries in Chinatown. I figure, perhaps its not too hard to make ? Browsing the websites online yields some baked instructions...

Ingredients :

1. A box of puff pastry sheets.
2. left over curry
3. Cayenne pepper powder .
   
4. Some salt.
5. One egg, for egg wash.
   

These are kinda the steps I took...

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degs. Tho, the pastry sheet box said 400.
   
2. Thaw the pastry sheets. Follow instructions for thawing. I over thawed them.
   
3. Mix 2,3,4 so that the flavor is more intense.
4. Cut the sheet into 3x3 squares (4x4 might have been nicer)
5. Fill the squares with curry mixture (small spoon full) , seal it, and put fork marks all around it.
   
6. Add egg wash on top
7. Bake it - till it looks done.
   

Ok, not too scientific , but good enough. How bad can it be ?

I baked it till the curry kinda oozed out... partially b/c I didn't seal it well, and partially b/c I put too much stuff in there... (goal = use curry)

Ugh.

I pulled the pastries apart, and set them on the table top to cool over night...
and ta da ! This actually tasted good in the morning.

I am afraid of your pantry

A conversation this morning...

Chris : Is the tortilla chips in your pantry still good to eat?
Ying: I don't know.

Ying thinks about it a bit...

Ying: I think the expiration date is June 6th, but I am not sure whether its for this year or last year.

Chris makes a face ... for a long time.

Chris: I am afraid of your pantry.

Chris makes an attempt at the chips...

Chris: Still crunchy.

Chips being consumed with a jar of salsa which Ying doesn't remember that she has....

A failed attempt to understand my dog

My dog - my old old dog of 15 and 8 months of age approaches me, stared at me intensely.

Figure she wants out - I let her out..

After 1 minute - she barks and waits outside of the door to be let in.

Ok. that's not it.

She continues to walk back and forth and then stop . stare. walks away. walks back. stare.
As if in the old tv show - where Lassie wants Timmy to see something. Just slower.

When she walked away - I went to check to see if she is at the door waiting. Nope. Found out that she wants more food as she stares at the garbage intensely.

I am a failed dog interpreter. At least for my dog.

Tho - this morning, I clearly understand that she wants food - as I saw for the first time - in ages - she drooled - at the sight of my dad eating a banana (which she doesn't like). She stopped staring at me and her mouth just went open and drip.... drip...

I can't stop laughing. But its bananas!!!

Maybe its b/c its my dad. Perhaps in a dog's world, the pack leader can keep the good stuff, where the non pack leaders simply should share. I am the non-pack leader who shows up once in a while.

She ignores me.

I think I am a pushover ... maybe :)

This week, I am in Toronto visiting Amy. Just hanging out and checking out the city a bit. Also, I got to work from the Toronto lab .. meet the team... meet the people I work with... etc... Kinda neat. The lab is pretty nice. Cafeteria can be improved...

We also try to eat at as many places as possible. Dinner today was at "The famous Owl of Minerva restaurant" at First Markham place. Initially, we were really excited about trying a Taiwanese Beef Noodle soup place we saw the night before... But , when we walked into the door, there was this waft of weird smell that came toward us. (wasn't anyone).. so we quickly decided that it'll bother us, and head out. We saw the Owl of Minerva restaurant near by and decided that we should give the Owl a try. Not too bad. Tho I was hoping for noodles and didn't get too much of it.

We have been eating dinner a bit at First Markham place near work. It has a lot of good Chinese restaurants that we've been sampling... and a strip mall-ish place with lots of Chinese stuff in there. Things like those you see in NYC's Chinatown. Trinkets, stuff animals, and DVD's... lots of DVDs. Today, we went thru the stores a bit more. Check out the many DVD's in there all low low low price... :D

Then we ended up at a snacks shop. I was amazed at the amount of Pokey selections. I got "Seaweed wasabi", "Tahitian Vanilla", and "milk honey" flavored pockey. Then at the check out counter, the guy was trying to get me to purchse this concentrated green tea milk candy. He said - its soo good that you can't stop eating those, and I'll give you a discount ... 10% off no tax..

So I got some.

Ok. Maybe I wasn't totally a push over. I was kinda interested in trying a new candy out, but I guess having extra mention of discount totally pushed me to actually purchase it...

Ugh... I can't believe I am talking about trying out new candy... Just in case these are Concentrate Milk Green Tea candy. Not too bad.

This is the candy:

Today I learned that cafeteria opens at 7:30

This week, I've attempted to wake up early so that I have time to finish work, and stuff that requires the focus of an awake person. As, by the end of the day - I am about to call it quits. I've come into work earlier too. Mainly due to the early morning meeting sessions that I have, which are inconvenient to do over my must-be-upgraded-soon cellphone.

Today, was no exception. I have an 9am, which means its a pain to go thru traffic and try to get to work right before then. And, today, I got into work at 7:15am. Traffic was light and really nice :) Figure I should have some food in my stomach before I start the day, I walked over to the cafe, and to my amazement - it is closed!! Woah. That had never happened. Never. Never in my whole entire IBM life.

Next time - I'll know. And knowing is 1/2 of the battle.

Food food food...

Dumplings!!!

Getting the place ready - a tub of fillings and pan:


Filling the pan with dumplings


After putting it in boiling water and cook it - finished!


Add a bit of soy sauce + vinegar ..... good stuff!

I think I might have ate a worm...

In which Chris replies - what about me ??? (as he took a bite off the peach I was working on)

Its peach season in the Chen family, and yeah - Dad's peach tree yielded a lot of peaches. While its not as much as last year, but these were much larger, and sweeter. And there was plenty.

(see the other veggies behind the peaches ? Dad grew those too... )

Dad doesn't believe in pesticides. Besides fighting his daily fight against the evil black squirrel that pillages his veggies and fruit with water, he wraps each peach in a plastic bag to really prevent bugs from getting at them.

That really took a lot of time. But he likes it. Tho, there are sneaky little worms that still manages to get inside the peach... I saw Mom this morning using a magnifying glass to check for worms after she cut the peaches out. She said - earlier on she saw a long skinny pink worm that went really fast, up the kitchen wall (which she then kills) , and so she has been checking the peaches ever since.

At least all the sliced ones have been Mom approved. But not the one I was working on...


One of the perks of working at home in NYC is being with my dog and my family. Here is a picture of the old girl.

and being able to just head into the city and check things out... good food. Grass anyone ?

Sometimes things just go bad...

Sometimes - things just go bad in my house. Food wise. Yogurt.. apples... pasta sides... cookies.. even chocolate. For those who know me, they would always check the expiration date before eating anything that's in my fridge or cupboard. Just to be safe.

This morning - as I go about making boiling water for my coffee and oatmeal, I remembered that I have a rice cooker in the sink I should wash. It has been sitting there soaking in water for about 3 days.. (that'll get all the rice off the sides). As I opened the lid up.. I saw bubbles on top of the water. I thought hummm... why would there be bubbles ?

As I look closer, a waft of smell came close to me almost make me choke. It was pretty nasty - like rotten milk smell... but with water and rice. The little bits of rice left over in the water has fermented..... ACK!!

What a way to wake up in the morning...