Since ancient times, bamboo shoots have been regarded as the crown jewels of vegetables in China with an unmatched exquisite taste.
The Chinese have been eating bamboo shoots for more than 3,000 years, and over millenniums that fondness of this vegetable deepens. Bursting out of the soil around the third lunar month of the year, freshly picked spring bamboo shoots are pure and white as jade, with a light fragrance and a refreshing taste.
In traditional Chinese medicine, bamboo shoots are considered good for reducing fever, resolving phlegm and fighting dampness of the body. There are more suitable as a spring diet.
In cuisines, when cooked with meat, bamboo shoots have the magical touch of making savory dishes, bringing the right balance to make the meat tasty but not too oily.
While there are lots of ways to cook bamboo shoots, the common practice is to first place them in boiled water for a short while for their texture to become smoother.
One of the most popular spring dishes is braised spring bamboo shoots. Originating from the southern part of the country, the authentic way of cooking this dish requires spring bamboo shoots to be picked by the start of April, and have them cooked in thick sugar and oil.
Mixed with aged ham, dried bean curd, and green onion in stew, spring bamboo shoots have become a signature dish in the cuisine culture of Shanghai and other adjacent east China regions – Yanduxian. There are many other ways of preparing the vegetable, such as making pickled bamboo shoots, hotpot sour bamboo shoots, which are enjoyed across the country.
Ancient Chinese people’s love for bamboo shoots was frequently featured in poetry. A great poet of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Bai Juyi, wrote a poem titled “eating bamboo shoots”, in which he described a passion so deep for the vegetable that he wouldn’t even want to touch meat so long as bamboo shoots were on the table.
Zheng Banqiao, a great painter of the 18th century who had a life-long passion for drawing bamboo, had perhaps an equally deep passion for bamboo shoots. He called spring bamboo shoots and reeves shad, said to be the most exquisite fish in many ancient literatures, the two top delicacies of springtime.
Today as all sorts of high-end delicacies have become more and more accessible to the general public, few food items carry that elegance of simplicity like spring bamboo shoots. Perhaps the great Chinese poet and famous foodie of the 11th century Su Dongpo said it best in his poem about spring bamboo shoots – the most enjoyable tastes for man are the simple ones.