My mandarin orange field is occupied by Moso bamboo for long time. Not only my field, almost all fields witch are abandoned cultivation area in west of Japan are similar situation. My wife requests me all the time that I should bring back bamboo shoot when I go back to my home town in Suho-Oshima. Bamboo shoot price is like 500 yen to 1000 yen in the stores around my home in Fujisawa. It’s obviously beneficial if I bring back bamboo shoots which I can dig out freely in my field when I go back to my home town in Suho-Oshima.
I started to walk to my field for digging bamboo shoot while I’m thinking about that I don’t bring how or plow and I can’t dig with hand like wild pig. Luck enough, on the way to my field I met my relative. I asked to him to dig out bamboo shoots from his field using his labor and hoe. I didn’t need to go to my bushy field following deep bush path.
Next day of my arrival to home in Fujisawa, my wife boiled four bamboo shoots in rice bran water. Those bamboo shoots were sent by home delivery. And since that day, bamboo shoot dinner dishes like 'bamboo shoot with vinegar and miso', 'boiled bamboo shoot',' bamboo shoot rice' and 'bamboo shoot soup' continued. We ate different dishes using two bamboo shoots very carefully in several days. Other two bamboo shoots are saved in freezer. We like to enjoy those two bamboo shoots for Chinese dishes like ‘beef and green pepper’ or ‘sweet and sour pork’
Bamboo shoot is sprout of bamboo. Bamboo has sprout and roots at each bamboo node. Sprout of three to four years bamboo begins to grow at spring season. Sprout grows several centimeters in a day. It grows several ten centimeters to one meter after 10 days. It stops growing after two to three month. It becomes tall grownup bamboo in a year. Good taste bamboo shoot is the sprout which is still in under ground or at most several centimeters above ground for the Moso bamboo.
Bamboo shoot is written by one Chinese letter ‘筍’. This letter is configured of two parts which are bamboo and good season. If letter ‘旬’ is pronounced ‘shun’, this letter means ‘most good taste season for that food’. If letter ‘旬’ is pronounced ‘Jun’, this letter means ‘during 10 days’. Therefore, the formula (bamboo + good season + during ten days = bamboo shoot) becomes true. The letter ‘筍’ explains very well about bamboo shoot and we are surprised again about Chinese letter formation.
There are many kinds of bamboo. Young Moso bamboo shoot is good taste and most popular as food material. There is a proverb ‘dig after boil water’ about bamboo shoot. Bamboo shoot start to increase bitter taste and become stiff right after cut form body. Anyway, bamboo shoot must be boiled very quickly to avoid those. And it’s better boil with rice bran or baking soda to pull out scum.
There are many proverbs like ‘bamboo shoot after rain’,‘ bamboo shoot life’ or ‘bamboo shoot doctor’. Those are exquisitely twisted on the nature of everyday life I would like to cherish that sharp crunch as well as its splendid sharpness.
(Yoshihiro Fujiwara Apr. 26th, 2018)
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