Well, shoot, sometimes it's really tricky to be buying for just one person. As I previously said, I like to keep a variety of ingredients around, but even dried goods aren't everlasting, after all, and especially in the summer grains can get bugs, yes, even in sealed packages. I suppose I can't blame the little critters, since they are after nutritious stuff. Today I found a bag of barley that was problematic..... It got put in a corner of the cabinet that I don't access very often, so. Must remember to make a regular date each month to go through cabinets, I suppose. Maybe the same day I pay bills. (Wouldn't that just totally put a damper on the whole day, and give a whole association to the Ides of March, ;-) )
Yesterday I made another trip to the Asian grocery store.
Both of these contain soy beans and broad beans, fructose, sesame oil and star anise. The label says it's GMO soy. But they should be vegan and contain no preservatives. The one with the red words contains chili peppers as well, and hence is spicy. The store also had different kinds of chili pastes. I usually have several kinds on hand, but since I had these 2, and others at home, I thought I'd better save those for future ventures.
Which, unfortunately, may not be far coming. I was looking for the fermented black beans, but these weren't quite the black beans I was looking for. (Yeah, yeah, cue Star Wars jokes.) I shall probably have to make another one to hunt those down. They had several different jars on the shelves.
I did locate red curry paste though, and this time I bought the smaller size, just in case I tire of it. (Not that I had choice, really, since I couldn't find larger sizes.) In cooking school we did get recipes to make the different pastes, but truth be told, some of them were just a bit more trouble than I'm willing to put in when I want dinner on the table quick, and if it means using these premade pastes and having a Thai curry dinner, or no Thai curry dinner at all, well, this is a good enough compromise. I also have some jars of simmering sauces. Haven't tried those yet. In any case, we had these at school too. Perhaps it's enough to have the recipes and know that we can make them from scratch should we want to. I do still have my notes.
I got a bit upset with myself when l left the store because I'd meant to buy mung beans as well, and totally got distracted. (Must bring list!) Fortunately, I did still have some at home after all. Really, the strangest things bring back childhood memories. My grandmother made a simple sweet dish just by boiling them with sugar. They can also be cooked with rice into something that looks like a porridge. Both great for the summer days.
I have the sneaking suspicion I might have some still sitting on the top shelf somewhere, but just in case, I bought a small bag of these peppercorns. I expect these to last a while! At some point I'll probably also try to make a small quantity of chili oil by infusing these in hot canola oil.