I have discovered that sparzha (asparagus) is eaten in a different way in Russian than it usually is in the U.S. Here the more popular version is white asparagus rather than green asparagus, and it is frequently put into salads in a way that makes it almost have the consistancy of meat. This, of course, is ideal for a vegetarian!The picture on to the left is of a popular salad that sparzha is added to. The salad is often called "morkov po-koreysky" (basically, Korean carrot salad). Korean salads in general are a very interesting subject. They are very popular in Russia and in Central Asia and are usually made with a vegetable of some type (most commonly carrots or cabbage). They seem to me to be a version of kim-chi that perhaps has changed slightly outside of Korea or perhaps was made differently by the Koreans who brought it to Russia and Central Asia.
Personally, I have never succeeded in making these salads as well as the ones I've bought, so I'm not sure what the secret is, but I think they are delicious. The carrot salad is usually made with carrots, onions, and garlic mixed with vegetable oil, vinegar, sugar, salt, and red pepper. If you speak Russian (and even if you don't -- there are good pictures), check out this recipe.
Recently, I have found versions of this carrot salad with sparzha added to it like the one above (the white vegetable on top of the carrots is the asparagus). The sparzha has a chewy texture and a very mild taste that is pleasant. If anyone can tell me how to make the asparagus taste like this, please let me know! I think it is just sliced lengthwise and perhaps flash-cooked in boiling water or steamed. Delicious!
Interesting! I don't think anyone had even heard of asparagus when I was growing up in Russia. I remember seeing white asparagus in an "imported" German fashion magazine. It looked so exotic.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I only read about asparagus in foreign books when I was growing up, and it was always portrayed as something that only rich people ate. The same goes for trout. I was very surprised to discover when I arrived in the US that trout was one of the cheapest kinds of fish in this country and was sold in every supermarket.
ReplyDeleteThe white stuff in that salad is actually NOT asparagus. While there is such a thing as white asparagus (the French, for example, usually don't eat the green variety.)
ReplyDeleteWhat you are looking at is indeed a Korean-style salad, but the white part is tofu skin. I am not sure why Russians call it "sparzha," since it is not related to or derived from asparagus.
-- Asian-American Moscow expat
I got the impression that Russians call the stuff in that salad "sparzha" because it looks (y'know, slightly) like asparagus. If you buy it by itself, it comes in long, dry, hard sticks, with some pieces being curved. It seems they make it by wrapping a long, soft, wet noodle-like piece of bean curd around two sticks about a foot apart and then letting it dry like that. So most of the length is straight, while the part wrapped around the sticks ends up curved.
DeleteYes, a very late addition to this post, but in case there's any doubt, Asian-American Moscow expat is correct. Koreyskaya sparzha is NOT asparagus, but is actually a bean curd product.
ReplyDeleteStumbled across this today as I was trying to find images and text to explain to my Central Asian colleagues what real asparagus/sparzha is, versus "Korean asparagus" (which is funny, because Koreans also have real asparagus, as far as I know...)
- American Central Asia Expat