Boawen

If you're into atrocious, engrossing, often horrifying stories, refer to Boawen for all the podcasts, documentaries, movies, etc, recommendations. He'll keep you updated on everything except medical malpractice (aka Dr Death is possibly the only podcast I listened to before Bo texted me about it). Boawen identifies as Taiwanese American. I met him at the same rooftop brunch at Kevin's where I found Joyce and Athena. A very fruitful brunch for my Oakland life indeed.

I've had curry puffs in Singapore, but I didn't know they had a cousin in these Chinese curry pockets that apparently used to be a dim sum staple that fell by the wayside at some point.

Bo told us his grandma used to make these for him, and while we can all agree no one can compete with our grandmas in the category of food mems, it made me realize the conversation of whether my interpretation of my friends' childhood foods actually reminding them of their childhoods hasn't really come up. It's not really the end goal, but it's a good question. Is my amalgamation capable of bringing up long ago memories?

Anyways, it's okay that it doesn't. Let's go back to my take on a curry pocket.

I made milk caramel curry pockets. Basically followed the recipe Bo sent, using a cut of chuck roast instead of ground beef. I made a sweet and creamy braising liquid with aromatics, spices, and sweetened condensed milk that I cooked down a little bit until it caramelized.

Curry... caramel? Yes. Let me tell you why it's amazing. Because curries already often have a sweet and creamy component. Because the already wonderful flavors of caramel are complemented by the mix of curry spices that are themselves both wonderful in sweet and savory dishes. Because we already know beef stands up to those bold flavors and benefits from those fantastic compounds that are formed when protein and sugar come together at high heat. And really I wouldn't have thought to combine the two if one of Boawen's childhood candies wasn't this milk caramel that I've also never heard of. I searched for these candies at my default Asian grocers to no avail. Luckily, it's just as easy to make caramel.

Caramel is just sugar chemistry. Cooking sugar brings it through several stages, which is how you can make so many different types of candy. At higher temperatures, as water is cooked off, sugar begins to change in ways we can see and smell. It gets darker, it smells toasty and complex, it has more depth and some bitterness. Add some protein (in the form of milk, cream, or butter) and you can unlock even more complexity, more nuance via Maillard reactions. If you don't already know, now you know - most of our beloved foods are so because of Maillard and caramelization reactions.

[Side note: this is the only picture I have of heritagedump + recipient]

The end result was sweet and savory in the best way, all tucked in a flakey [store bought] puff pastry.

Things I would do differently: I almost omitted potatoes when I didn't have any at home, but a last minute run to the store to get puff pastries saw me also coming out with a potato (honestly, I don't even know why I thought it'd be acceptable to omit), but that also meant the potatoes were a tad undercooked... so next time I just.. wouldn't undercook the potato *shrugs*

Bo's complete list: 

chinese curry pockets

morinaga caramel milk candy (yellow box)

bin bin rice crackers

pc. mostly Joyce