I think I've just poisoned myself and my already sick husband.

Mr. Writer has been ill with Bronchitis this week. He typically does the cooking, so I prepared dinner this evening: a stir-fry of scallops, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, and wheat pasta in a spicy Szechuan sauce.

We nibbled on our food, Mr. Writer complimenting me on my ad hoc cooking skills, until he says: "There's something gritty in here."

"What?"

"I don't know - is it the scallops?"

I knew that the scallops and vegetables were fresh. I checked the bottle of sauce, which had been stored partly used in the cabinet. "Refridgerate after opening," the label read. My stomach soured. I looked more closely: "Best used before December 2007."

"Oh dear," I thought.




So... are we going to die?

~Writer the Inept Culinary~


On edit: Supernova is a better speller than I. ;)

Best get the vomit bucket though....

Are you serious?

Unless the scallops were bad.
Then you really best find the vomit bucket.

but probably not anytime soon. Hope you are both feeling better soon!

if it said Best used before December 1976, you might be in trouble.

that's true I think :headbang:

And it looks like you have found that elusive "fish gravy" that so many here have been looking for, I'm sorry to say for the worse.

it's probably all right. Soy sauce based stuff doesn't usually go bad.

Gritty? Maybe the scallops were sandy.

I doubt you killed him. ;-)

and an expiration date of Dec. 2007 really means something like Dec. of 2008.

As others have said, I imagine your scallops had some sand in them. Though you possibly didn't clean your mushrooms well enough.


God, I am so in the mood for Chinese food, but the only one that's close is fucking shit.

Salt helps preserve stuff and people who use it all the time (like Asians) don't refrigerate their sauces. If you don't use it every day, please refrigerate these sauces in the future. Make sure you check the labels.