Edible Bamboo.

The use of bamboo shoots is common in many Asian cuisines. It’s kind of like asparagus in that you only eat the tender emerging shoot.

I’ve used canned bamboo shoots, but never seen it fresh in stores. Lompoc isn’t the culinary capital of of California and a little off the beaten path, but we have a good population of Thai and Hmong people and I shop in their stores. Maybe I’m not paying attention, shouldn’t it be somewhere between the Lemon grass and Kaffir lime?

Seriously, does anyonee see fresh bamboo shoots in their Asian market?

Anyone grow edible bamboo or know anything about it?

I think you need to ask this guy.

That was a good toon but I’d rather ask King Kong. I loved the scene in the recent version where he puts Ms. Darrow down and she plays dead. Meanwhile Kong is kickin’ it, watching the sunset and snacking on bamboo.

Jack Black looked high as a kite throughout that flick?

My post was prompted by coming across 3, 5-gallon containers of Buhdda’s bella bamboo. I’m planting a shade garden and lucked into them for a screen on one side of these two old California pepper trees, (Peruvian pepper trees,) where there’s a hole in the canopy.

Buhdda’s belly is a timber bamboo that grows to 55 feet, and not edible. It turns out one of the tree ferns I picked is edible, but it takes about 200 f’ing years to reach edible size… No wonder the dinosaurs died, they starved!

Pandas? PANDAS? A great movie quote (from my favorite movie) is “I felt like putting a bullet in the head of every panda that wouldn’t screw to save the species.”

I am going to try to find some edible bamboo to plant. I am guessing its more of a filler and for texture? If anyone reads this rambling, what about water chestnuts? Those don’t seem to contribute much aside from bulk to Asian cuisine? I do like the mouthfeel and texture of water chestnuts. What the heck are they?

When I lived in Fresno I visited most of the large (and many of the tiny) Asian markets there (and trust me- there were TONS of them), and I don’t recall ever seeing fresh bamboo. Fresno has the largest Hmong population outside of SE Asia, so I imagine if you had any likelihood of finding it, it would be there. Maybe I just wasn’t looking. Hmmm.

What is the role of bamboo shoots in Asian cuisine? They are pretty common in Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese food.

Are the bamboo shoots here in the US all canned?

I’m wondering if there is an agricultural opportunity to produce it here? Probably not given economies of scale and how it is used.

Here in NJ we have an abundance of oriental groceries, and I see bamboo shoots in many different forms, including occasionally fresh. Most often they are sliced and in plastic packaging. One of those had pandas on the label.

That shooting Panda reminded me of the book about the importance of punctuation

“Eats, shoots, and leaves”

It’s used here in some dishes. One of my favorites is from my father’s home province. The dish is called “labong”, made mainly of bamboo shoots, cooked in coconut milk/cream, with local long, slim, hot green peppers (I don’t know the English name for it), a tiny bit of pork and small, dried shrimps.

Peter, they are commonly available at the local asian supermarket here. My mom likes to use it either in soups or in stir frys. Crazy how little of the shoot you can use.

Thanks all for the info.

My house is set on the edge of a cliff. As soon as I get some culinary bamboo I’m gonna sit on the edge of the cliff eating bamboo and gazing at the sunset…

In May I put in a 50 foot row of asparagus rhizomes that is now a beautiful wall of green, a row of primocane raspberries and some strawberries. Next spring hopefully a few clumps of edible bamboo and a row of blueberries.