Kitchen Nightmares

We've all had them!  In fact, my Dad (and my sister AND my brother) just love telling the story of my "first" kitchen disaster: serving up cold scrambled eggs and beans on toast because I was too inexperienced to have everything ready at the same time.  Apparently that's one story that just never gets old.

We had an old friend visiting from out of town last night.  A good friend, but someone we hadn't seen in 5 years so I was looking forward to cooking something different.  An old stand by by from our Singapore "menu" but something I hadn't cooked in a while (or at all since we arrived back in New Zealand), thai red curry with prawns.

I spent most of Wednesday morning combing the shelves at Countdown and Yan's Supermarket and then of course had to make another "quick" visit to Countdown again on Thursday for a few more vital ingredients.  Another hour of chopping and prepping and then I got down to business, grinding up a thai red curry paste in my mortar and pestle.

Lesson #1: You will nearly always regret buying kitchen tools from the Warehouse.

My curry paste was *almost* ready and smelling amazing when disaster struck: the mortar splintered into a thousand pieces rendering my curry paste inedible.  Fortunately I managed to rustle up a quick salmon pasta instead, so poor old Mr B and our friend weren't going to be left to fade away.  But I am still disappointed that I didn't manage to make the curry.  Oh well, another day perhaps!

What are some of your kitchen disasters?  And where can I find a decent mortar and pestle around here?!?!