Thursday, March 6, 2008

Korean Carrots

I am going to make Korean Carrots to go with dinner one of these days. I have been craving them ever since I've gotten back from Russia. I even bought the little gizmo that shreds the carrots into perfect little strips with gift card money soon after we got married because I wanted this salad so badly.

I still haven't made it, but I used my julienne peeler while making another salad today and it made my mouth water just thinking about Korean Carrots. So I went online and found some recipes.

These two look the best to me!

Now I can't wait to go out and buy a big bag of carrots--or at least a few big carrots. I'm not sure we could eat a whole bagful before they go bad. We usually just buy baby carrots because they are instant food, but you need nice long carrots for Korean Carrots.

They sell this on the street in Russia in big huge vats! You just say how much you want and they scoop it into a baggie for you and you take it home for dinner. My host mom would bring it home at least once a week because I liked it so much. Perhaps I exaggerate--it may have been only every couple of weeks.

The first night I arrived in Russia my host mom had a big meal all spread out for me on the table. It was well after midnight when I arrived and we had eaten on the plane. And then we had eaten on the bus on the way down from Moscow. And then my host dad, Alexander (he had me call him Alex, because it was American, while everyone else called him Sasha), gave me some cookies in the car. And then my host mom, Oxana, expected me to eat this huge meal.

She started with the appetizer, of course, which was the Korean Carrots. And they were so delicious I just gobbled them down. I couldn't help myself, even though I wasn't really that hungry. Because I ate so much of the appetizer she gave me second helpings of the main course, which wasn't really even that great--just rice drizzled with oil and a half-cooked hamburger blob thing. And then more cookies!

And my mom wondered why I gained weight in Russia.

Anyway, I've been thinking about Russia a lot today and I really want some of these carrots!

3 comments:

Marianne and Ben said...

Hi Nancy, I love this blog. It is so funny to read and very helpful. I love the link to the website www.thepioneerwomancooks.com, it is great and funny to read too. Just thought I'd say HI.
Marianne

Bridget said...

Is this an everywhere-but-Moscow specialty? Because I can honestly say I have never heard of nor seen this dish. Bizarre!! Maybe I tried it once and hated it and blocked it out of my memory.

Let us know how it turns out!

Nancy said...

You've seriously never had these before?!? Wow!

I'm pretty sure that they do have them in Moscow, but I believe they are more common along the southern "asian" border--by the -stans and China.

Oh, so good! :)