Can You Eat Bamboo?
The oddly delicious food staple I happened upon in Asia
When I first moved to Taiwan from Canada about 13 years ago, I came across many foods that were, uh, different. From rice blood cake to boiled chicken feet, Taiwan certainly had many new delicacies for me to try and experience first hand (if I dared!).
One of the more interesting daily staple dishes I came across was bamboo shoots. The first time I ate them, I had no idea what this slightly crunchy, slightly bitter vegetable was in my bowl.
I didn’t mind it, but I didn’t love it — at first.
As I traveled more and more throughout Asia over the years, I came to grow an appreciation for this tasty delicacy. It turns out, that the first type of bamboo dish I ate was only one of many ways to prepare it.
Why eat bamboo?
Outside of the unique flavors and amazing dishes you can find with it, bamboo shoots contain a surprisingly large amount of healthy vitamins and minerals.
Just 100 grams of cooked bamboo shoots (the size of a small bowl) contains 533 mg of potassium, 2.2 grams of dietary fiber, and only 27 calories! It’s also a great source of the B-complex group of vitamins as well as a small source of iron — important for every person’s diet these days.
Another great aspect of bamboo? It’s very easy to grow and boy oh boy does it grow fast.
Some breeds of bamboo can even grow up to 3 feet in a day (not the kind we eat though).
Of the 1,000+ varieties of bamboo, only the following are used for human consumption:
- Phyllostachys edulis
- Phyllostachys bambusoides
- Dendrocalamus latiflorus
- Bambusa vulgaris
- Bambusa oldhamii
- Bambusa odashimae
There is a special toxin that helps bamboo grow so quickly, taxiphyllin, so almost all of the bamboo people eat around the world has been boiled or harvested in a special way to get rid of it.
Types of bamboo shoot dishes
Bamboo is consumed in many different ways around Asia. It can be used as a main dish, or more often, an ingredient mixed in with others.
In Thailand, you can find pad thai and delicious spicy curries intermingled with boiled and fried bamboo shoots.
Heading over to China and Taiwan, you’ll find a variety of braised, boiled, and stir-fried bamboo shoot dishes.
Fly up to Japan and you start seeing another side of the delectable ingredient — bamboo rice bowls!
For those with the occasional desire for a hefty deep-fried dish, you can head down to Indonesia to try their version of spring rolls — made with bamboo shoots of course!
Wrapup
My personal favorite is the bamboo shoot curries in Thailand. It’s hard to beat a dish that mixes spices, coconut, bamboo, and the meat of your choice — all piping hot and usually cheap to boot!
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