Ethnic Shops Continued

I finally made it to the Russian shop yesterday. I bought these apricot filled glazki.


And some cherry juice to make The Blog Techs favorite Sonic drink.


I can't wait to try this Russian butter.


This huge jar of cornichons cost only 4.59. A tiny jar at my grocery store would cost more than this.


Lovely lemon slices.

These crackers are really good with cheese spread on them.


The owners did not speak English. Fortunately, the customer in front of me spoke a little and he helped me out. He bought a 3 # chunk of this meat and I asked him what it is. He said it is called "doctor's meat". In communist Russia, only the doctors could afford to buy this. He said that when communism ended, everyone went crazy for this stuff. I had to try it. It is really quite good. It tastes like a kielbasa flavored bologna.


Some whole grain Russian mustard I picked out. The old store owner gave me a thumbs up when he saw I selected this one.


And Russian candy. I am not a candy eater but years ago a Russian woman gave me some of this and I've loved it ever since. It is usually sold in bulk and is all priced the same. This store charges 8.99 a pound. The Russians use very good dark chocolate in most of their candies. Some are fruit filled and some are filled with crispy bits. I have never had a bad one.


Here is one unwrapped.


I went to a Russia bakery next and bought this wonderful Russian corn rye.


And a garlic, Parmesan baguette....not very Russian but it smells wonderful.


My next stop was a Korean store. And what a find it is. The family that owns it makes lots of the food themselves. This radish kimchi has a mind of it's own. It blew it's lid a couple times on the way home.

I had to put it in a more secure vehicle.


My favorite....green onion kimchi.


And whole garlic kimchi. My refrigerator smells like dirty socks which makes me very hungry!


The store owner kept giving me packages of things to take home and try for free. I ended up with 3 different kinds of pancakes. Can anyone translate the label? I'm not sure what I have. An eating adventure for sure.


Bulgogi! I usually make my own but I could not pass up uncooked, homemade frozen bulgogi. I will make it this week.

My favorite pickled daikon. If you have never tried this you should. They are great.


A huge bag of homemade chicken dumplings.


Homemade rice cakes.

Homemade egg rolls.


The other pancakes.


It will be a food adventure for sure.


Oops...out of order but this one is a Russian toffee. The nice guy at the Korean place also gave me a tub of something else which I forgot to take a pic of. He kept saying: It is very sweet. For after dinner. Sweet squid. I sure hope he meant sweet squash. I don't think I am down with sweet squid!

Comments

Guillaume said…
For some reason when I see the Russian stuff I think of Goodbye Lenin.
Anonymous said…
Just catching up again. I'm still in California, well not actually "still" but again in California. So busy with family and all. I must tell you that I'm so impressed with your "worldly" taste in food. I've just never ventured away from what I already love. Maybe you have just opened a whole new world for me. Uh oh! I eat too much already.
Anonymous said…
you thought he said sweet squid and I thought you said BULLFROG!!!
I'm unfamiliar with so many of the items you bought but will look forward to watching you use them on your posts.
You must really like kimchi,, wow!
You certainly make food fun!
Robin Larkspur said…
Quite a few years ago, when we lived in Hawaii, I used to ride the bus to work, to and from downtown Honolulu. I called the bus the "Kimchee Express", because riding for 30 minutes in a packed bus, after everyone seemed to have kimchee for lunch was quite, shall we say, "aromatic". To this day, I still can't stand to eat or smell it, lol!!
I am enjoying seeing and hearing about all of this different food. We don't have a big selection of ethnic markets here in the deep south,so the education on these foods is great.
Anonymous said…
I'm a bit jealous right now :-) I wish we had more of those ethnic stores here but they aren't especially common even in the bigger cities here in Sweden.

We have the Finn Crisps here too and I do like to have some every now and again. The russian corn and rye bread is also something we can get here without any problems. It is delicious!

Eastern European candy and pastry is usually very, very sweet. Almost so sweet that it is impossible to eat it :-) :-) :-) But that has never stopped me :-)

Lots of nice things You show today!
Have a great day!
Christer.
What a haul! I can't eat kimchi -- much too hot for me. Love the story about "doctors meat"!
TARYTERRE said…
The fun you are going to have eating all these delightful foods. I am so-oo hungry right now. Was intriqued by the pickled daikons. We bought daikons for years and years, then when we moved here, couldn't find them. never had them picled, though. VERY interesting. ENJOY your feast. Take care.
My sister in law is Russan. She came to america about lil over yrs ago. She sends over everyone in a while those candies! My kids and I go crazy over them . So good. We dont have many shops in southcarolina so we dont get much of other cultures food.
brokenteepee said…
I am thinking that most kimchee has a mind of its own.
LindaG said…
I'm jealous of all your stores. ;-)
All we have are oriental stores around here.
Not a big fan of kimchi, but it sounds like the radish kimchi was still fermenting. ;-)

Don't know how you find all those great places, but I do love looking at your pictures. :)
I can not stop my mouth from watering. Kimchi! I have not that in ages. Wish I were there to help you enjoy all this fabulous food.
Candace said…
Having just come off of a cruise where the food was not only mediocre but bland -- you have certainly made Mr. Squash and I drool! Our combined Eastern European heritages yearn for food like this! I think we need to make a trip to the Public Market in Seattle before heading home to the other side of the state tomorrow!
Cheers!
Ina in Alaska said…
So much to drool over! The Russian candies look delicious. I love dark chocolate!
Julia said…
Got to agree with you there, that green onion kimchi looks fab. I feel like I could eat the whole pot right now! Is it spicy?