China, Spring 2010, Part 1 – Bamboo Shoots

One of our goals on this trip was to eat seasonal vegetables that we don’t normally get back home.  One of these is fresh bamboo shoots.  When I was growing up, the only bamboo shoots I tasted came out of a can.  Those bamboo shoots always kind of tasted “tinny” to me.  After we got married, I discovered bamboo shoots imported from either China or Japan that was packed in plastic bags filled with water.  Although I thought they tasted far better than the ones from the can, The Cat was not impressed.  This is a picture of fresh bamboo shoots at a vegetable stand near where we stayed on this trip.  

Fresh Bamboo Shoots

The first night we arrived in Shanghai, The Cat’s nephew (and mine by marriage), met us in town to help us with our luggage.  Since he also helped to book the apartment we were staying at, he knew the directions.  There is a restaurant around the corner of the apartment that he wanted to try.  On the menu was hand peeled bamboo shoots.  

Hand Peeled Bamboo Shoots

The bamboo shoots were prepared by cutting them into smaller sections, cleaning them, and boiling them in salted water.  The bamboo shoots in the two pictures don’t look that different.  To eat it, you peel the outer casing until you get to the softer middle.  The process kind of reminded me of eating artichokes.   There is definitely a difference in texture.  I felt like “Po” eating this dish (I was looking around for “Master Shifu” to appear).  Now I know what bamboo shoots are supposed to taste like.  

I didn’t know it at the time, but with the packaged bamboo shoots, the texture seems like the bamboo shoots lost some of its “stalkiness,” it seems to be softer or a little “mushy.”  I guess the fiber breaks down after processing.  I won’t even comment on the  canned variety.   

On another night, we had bamboo shoots in a brown sauce.   

Braised Bamboo Shoots in Brown Sauce

According to a Shanghai guidebook.  Shanghai food tend to use a soy sauce and sugar base.  As the city was developing, the people did not have access to a variety of herbs and spices.  As a result, a lot of dishes we ate use a variation of the soy sauce and sugar sauce I call “brown sauce.”  

Crunch.  

If The Mouse Eats Bamboo Shoots, Can The Mouse Become the “Dragon Warrior?”