Delicious spring bamboo shoots

Bamboo shoot is one of my favorite foods. Spring is the season for germination of bamboo shoots which is called “chun1sun3(春笋)” in China. In early spring, there are not so many “chunsun” sprouting, so the price is pretty high, more than $7 per kg. It’s even higher than pork and beef. As more are harvested, the prices gradually drop. By the mid of spring, “chunsun” is on a large sale; the price would be only about $0.70 per kg. 

“chunsun” is the most important part of a famous seasonal dish in east China called “yan1du1xian1(腌笃鲜)”. Actually, it’s a kind of soup which includes marbled cured meat, pork ribs, and of course,  “chunsun”. The soup needs to takes more than one hour to stew. When ready, it is a mixure of strong, fragrant cured meat and the delicate smell of “chunsun”. The texture of “chunsun” is like asparagus, but chewier than it. The soup tastes delicatly salty, the meat in it is soft and the “chunsun” is chewy. It really is delicious.
The soup can only be made in spring. Still, there are some restaurants that offer this kind of soup in other seasons; however, it is not so popular then, since they use canned bamboo shoots. Canned shoots belong another variety of bamboo, instead of spring bamboo shoots.
As I told you, I like bamboo shoots very much. In order to eat “chunsun” in other seasons, I learnt a method from my mother-in-law to preserve them. Every mid spring, when the price of “chunsun” is only $0.7 per kg, I would buy more than 10 kg to preserve. After cleaning, I cut short and put them into a pot with a lot of salt, and then stew with gentle heat until they become soft, since the water in them are discharged. I freeze these salty “chunsun” in the refrigerator. Every time when I want to use them, in advance, I take out and soak them in water to desalinate. The salty “chunsun” tastes a little different than the fresh, but are still delicious. I always share salty “chunsun” with my friends and they all like it very much. It is rumoured that Westerns don’t eat bamboo shoots. What a pity.

(Sonny, this was a great article. Very well written and interesting.  Who says westerners don't eat bamboo shoots.  I have several cans of it in my pantry!!!  Ha ha.....  Actually, I saw them at the Chinese market the last time I was in Salt Lake City.  I can also buy them in LA, but that's too far to drive for bamboo shoots.)