In Japan, we love having seasonal foods. For example, in spring, bamboo shoots are one of the examples, and I'm looking forward to them every year.

A couple of days ago, I received my order of bamboo shoots from CO-OP. Although I'll write more about CO-OP on my other entry sometime soon, they were my first bamboo shoots this year. When I opened the box, it smelled just like spring!

You might be surprised because we eat a part of bamboo plant even though we're not panda bears! The picture below shows bamboo shoots.

Fresh ones taste the best, so I cooked them immediately after receiving.

I feel lucky because we can get a special type of bamboo shoot called shirako-takenoko, which are the youngest and softest. I believe they are the best.

Let me explain how to prepare and eat them. First, peel off the outer layers.

Compared to the regular bamboo shoots, since they look whiter, they are called shirako-takenoko. Shiro means white in Japanese.

I cut the bamboo shoots half to boil them in a pot.

Although the shirako-takenoko doesn't have any bitterness, I boiled them with some rice bran just in case.

Boil them until they become soft.

Let them rest overnight.

We can make many varieties of dishes with them, but the most popular ones are bamboo shoot rice and bamboo shoot soup.

I used two of them for the rice and one for the soup. I chopped the bamboo shoots into small pieces.

The picture below shows abura-age (deep-flied sliced tofu).

I cut the abura-age into small pieces too.

To make bamboo shoot rice, I cooked the bamboo shoots and abura-age together with mirin (sweet cooking sake), salt, and dried seaweed.

Ta-da! Bamboo shoot rice is ready for supper.

The day before my bamboo box was arrived, I received another box from a friend of mine. She sent me dried udon (Japanese noodle) while visiting her daughter in Gunma Prefecture. It's called mizusama udon in Japanese, one of the best three in Japan.

Tonight's dinner was udon, takenoko-gohan (bamboo shoot rice) and wakatake-jiru (bamboo shoot soup).

Since I've ordered another bamboo shoots, I'll be enjoying them again next week! I can't wait!!

Do you have any seasonal foods where you live?

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