Bamboo shoots are delicious
The Vietnamese culture of eating bamboo shoots probably originated from the dawn of the nation, when green bamboo fences surrounded, protected and were the identifying mark of the village - the basic and traditional living space of the Vietnamese people. Bamboo is close and familiar to the lives of Vietnamese people, perhaps just like rice.
That is why, wherever Vietnamese people live, bamboo trees appear, from the green bamboo fences of Vietnamese communal houses in the delta plains to the immense bamboo forests in the Northwest and Northeast mountains. Bamboo clings to the land and to people along the journey of land expansion from the North through the Central to the extreme South.
Wherever the Vietnamese went, bamboo grew, layer upon layer of old bamboo and young bamboo shoots growing in the mission of marking the territory of the Vietnamese people and providing us with a diverse and rich bamboo-eating culture because there are more than 200 types of 26 different bamboo branches, equivalent to that many types of bamboo shoots.
Therefore, Vietnamese people love eating bamboo shoots and have come up with dozens of ways to eat bamboo shoots to turn them into a rich and vibrant culinary treasure. Bamboo shoots can be eaten fresh like a daily vegetable, just dig them up, peel them, wash them and eat them raw or boil them and dip them in salt and chili.
Fresh bamboo shoots are also pickled to reduce the bitterness and toxicity and used to make soup, especially with poultry such as geese, chickens, ducks or fish. Fresh bamboo shoots are also pickled with hot chili and garlic to become a "pickle" eaten daily with meals.
Bamboo shoots are dried and then become an ingredient for elaborate dishes, especially bamboo shoot soup in the traditional Vietnamese feast, especially during the traditional Lunar New Year. The Tet feast cannot be considered sumptuous and complete without a bowl of bamboo shoot soup stewed with pig's feet, very carefully and skillfully. And to do that, it takes a lot of effort.
THE ULTIMATE WORK
In the traditional feast, the bowl of stewed bird or fish fin may be missing because it is too elaborate and expensive, but the bowl of stewed bamboo shoots and pig's feet is indispensable. People often use bamboo shoots with pig's tongue - so called because of the shape of the bamboo shoots and the texture of the taste when eaten - to cook.
This is a very young bamboo shoot, not yet above ground, dug up and dried so it has a high crispness like eating a piece of pig's tongue, at the same time has moderate toughness, not too much fiber. Choose the best pig's tongue shoot, thick, short, slightly curved like a pig's tongue, for the best taste.
Cooking dried bamboo shoots in general or cooking bamboo shoot soup for Tet in particular, the most time-consuming part is soaking the bamboo shoots. From the 25th of December, the bamboo shoots are soaked in clean water all day, then scooped out and soaked in rice water, then scooped out and soaked in clean water.
The process of soaking the bamboo shoots and changing the soaking water is done many times, to change the soaking water from the color of strong tea to the color of very weak light tea, it takes 3 days. At this time, the bamboo shoots will no longer have a musty smell, but will give off a herbal aroma. Then move on to the step of boiling the bamboo shoots.
The first time, boil the bamboo shoots over high heat until the pot boils vigorously for about 15 minutes, then wash them with clean water and soak them overnight. The next day, take the bamboo shoots and put them in the pot again, boil them a second time, then wash and soak them in clean water. After the third time of boiling and washing, the bamboo shoots will have swelled up a lot, but the water that comes out is still yellow.
Soak the bamboo shoots in water again, wash continuously until the water is clear and no longer yellow, the bamboo shoots are fully expanded, soft and plump, and the first stage is complete. Only then is the washing of the bamboo shoots completed. Therefore, if you want to cook bamboo shoots on the 30th of Tet, you must soak the bamboo shoots no later than the 25th of December.
The next step is to cut bamboo shoots, which requires excellent knife skills. Generally, to judge the skill of the cook, just look at the bamboo shoots in the Tet bamboo soup. In the past, mothers were the most critical in this part of their daughters and daughters-in-law to know if they had "become good people" or still needed to be taught.
With a sharp, sturdy knife ready, place the bamboo shoots neatly on the cutting board and use a large, thin-bladed knife to slice. When slicing, tilt the knife diagonally to create pieces that are neither too thick nor too thin. The wide cut surface makes the bamboo shoots look beautiful and absorb the broth easily.
The sliced bamboo shoots are divided into 2 parts: the bamboo shoot buds and the bamboo shoot stems, kept separately. This is because the softness of the bamboo shoot buds and the bamboo shoot stems are not the same. If you cook them at the same time, the bamboo shoots will be soft in some places and mushy in others, making them less delicious. After slicing the bamboo shoots, marinate them with fish sauce, seasoning powder, and pepper for a while to let them absorb.
Cut the pig's feet into large pieces, leave the long part of the hoof in half. Wash the pork bones, soak them in light salt water for about half an hour to remove all the blood from the bones. Take a pot of clean water, add crushed fresh ginger and grilled onions, bring to a boil, then add the pig's feet and bones and blanch them to clean them, then take them out, wash them, and marinate them with fish sauce, pepper, and spices for about half an hour.
Fry the shallots with hot oil until fragrant, then add the pig's feet and stir-fry thoroughly, then transfer to a deep pot. Use the chicken fat to fry the shallots and shallots to stir-fry the bamboo shoots, also divided into two batches, the bamboo shoot buds and the bamboo shoot stems. The bamboo shoots stir-fried with chicken fat immediately give off a fragrant aroma and turn golden brown.
LOOK AT THE BOWL OF BAMBOO SHOWS, RESPONSIBLE
The broth used to simmer bamboo shoots is also very elaborate. Take an old chicken skeleton - usually an old hen that has run out of eggs - and simmer it with a dozen pairs of chicken feet and grilled fresh ginger for several hours. Then, filter the clear broth to simmer the bamboo shoots to make it sweet and fragrant.
Pour the stir-fried bamboo shoots into the pot of pig's feet, then pour the broth into the bamboo shoots pot, then put it on the stove, and keep it on low heat until the water is clear. The bamboo shoots water has a light amber color, shimmering with grease on the surface. After about 45 minutes, add the bamboo shoots to simmer together.
It takes up to 2 days to simmer the bamboo shoots. When the pork leg and bamboo shoots are soft, you can lightly poke them with chopsticks. Now, just put the meat on your tongue and bite it lightly and it will melt like butter, giving it a rich flavor but not too greasy.
The bamboo shoots are thick enough to absorb the sweetness of the bones and meat, so when chewing the bamboo shoots, they feel moderately soft and sweet all the way to the roots and crevices of the tongue. Eating the bamboo shoots, there is both the joy of looking at the warm, rich bamboo shoots in the cold, and the caressing feeling of the tongue gliding over the soft, sweet bamboo shoots, and the ears can hear the gentle sound of the teeth slowly sinking into the bamboo shoots.
The upper part of the bamboo shoot has the fiber of vegetables, while the lower part has the meaty texture, just like cordyceps. Bamboo shoots contain vegetables, meat and bones, so after eating, we feel completely satisfied because eating bamboo shoots is more delicious than any meat in the world.
In the past, when there were no refrigerators, the plentiful Tet dishes easily spoiled in the humid weather. Only the bamboo shoot pot was immune to spoilage because it was cooked thoroughly and reheated daily, so it could be kept for a long time. Bamboo shoots and pickled cucumber soup had to be cooked over two or three fires to be delicious.
Therefore, the pot of stewed bamboo shoots is considered the most important food on the Tet tray. The cooking skills of women on Tet holiday are judged by the pot of bamboo shoots. If the bamboo shoots are hard and smelly while the broth is greasy and not clear, and the bowl of bamboo shoots lacks the bright green color of the blanched onions and the dark color of the wood ear mushrooms, then it is considered a failure.
When put into the bowl, the bamboo shoots are placed first, then the pig's feet are placed on top, followed by the blanched onion in the middle, a few vermicelli noodles are placed, and then the water is poured over the pig's feet. That is what is called a bowl of delicious bamboo shoot soup, worthy of being considered the central character of the Tet feast!
