Fresh sweet bamboo shoots

Pickled bamboo shoots cooked with whale fish soup is both attractive and refreshing for hot sunny days.

When they first emerge from the ground, bamboo shoots have a characteristic gray-green color on a thick layer of bamboo spathe, covered with stiff hairs.

The older the bamboo shoots get, the straighter they become. If you look back and forget about them in just a few days, you will definitely regret it because they have passed their best stage. The bamboo shoots that have just sprouted have become towering bamboo shoots, about to sprout thorny branches.

Therefore, when I was a child, my mother often assigned me to look after the bamboo bushes. The few bamboo shoots were left to grow into trees, and occasionally, when there were clusters of new bamboo shoots, my mother would use a shovel to skillfully cut them close to the base of the bamboo shoots to bring home to cook.

Bamboo shoots are firm and can be eaten fresh, or dried or pickled to make soup, braised fish, or braised duck. After bringing them home, my mother used a knife to cut off the bamboo shoots, revealing the delicious ivory-white core. Cut the bamboo shoots into thin slices, soak them in salt water for 2-3 times, to make sure they don't get sick of the bamboo shoots, my mother also boiled them thoroughly before stir-frying them with vermicelli.

Needless to say, the bamboo shoots are delicious. The bamboo shoots are crunchy and fragrant. The smell of the bamboo shoots blends with the aroma of fried garlic, the soft and chewy vermicelli is soaked in. No need to fear the hot weather of the last days of summer, because each chopstick of bamboo shoots is rich and cool in the mouth.

Or like the authentic homemade pickled bamboo shoots. After being soaked thoroughly in salt water, the bamboo shoots are pickled in a clay pot. With a skillful pickler, and careful and meticulous, the jar of pickled bamboo shoots that my mother has been pickling for months is still firm and not rotten. Take the bamboo shoots out, soak them until the sour taste is mild, and you have an attractive ingredient for a pot of whale fish soup with an unmistakable delicious taste.

On the weekend, when I returned home, following my childhood habit, I went to the cool corner of the garden, next to the bamboo bush that was swaying in the wind. Looking deep into a corner of the bamboo bush, I happened to see bamboo shoots about two spans high, right at the time when the bamboo shoots were at their most delicious.

What are you waiting for? The bamboo shoots are right in front of you, and the shovel is always lying with your father's rakes and hoes behind the house. Suddenly, I realized that I could dig bamboo shoots skillfully by myself, and was no longer the little girl who used to follow my mother to dig bamboo shoots with the shovel!

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/tuoi-ngot-mang-gai-3140452.html