Nature at its finest.

Living in Japan has taught me a lot of things - a couple of things I've learned and want to continue no matter where I go from here on out is: 「手間を惜しまない」and「旬を大事にする」- stuff like this always sound terribly tacky when you try to translate them, so the general ideas are "not trying to take shortcuts" and "valuing the seasons (many times by eating fruits/veggies in season)."

I must admit, it does look pretty grotesque.

So one day, I suddenly received a call from a dear friend saying that she was nearby my place, and had something she wanted to give me. It turned out to be this...takenoko, or a bamboo shoot. She'd gone bamboo shoot hunting around her hometown of Katsuura, and brought back one for me because we'd recently discussed how awesome takenoko taste.

And I really appreciated the gesture - I mean, I do love just about anything with takenoko in it, but I'd only gotten it in it's original, fresh-out-the-ground form once before, and it had been a disaster when I tried to cook with it (what I wound up with was something that tasted like stewed newspaper.)

But it was in my possession...and I couldn't let it go to waste, so armed with the power of Google search, I decided to try again.

Pre-cooking the bamboo shoot!

The basics of pre-cooking takenoko, clockwise from left to right. You cut it up, boil it in...I used the water left over from washing rice in order to help remove the bitterness of the takenoko...and voila! Store it in a container filled with water for up to 3 days, until you're ready to cook with it.

Products of labor = yumminess! (Also, this is my fancy lunch container that keeps my lunch warm for up to 5 hours)

One of my coworkers suggested maybe I had previously failed cooking takenoko before I chose a rather unique recipe - basically I think it was takenoko cooked in gochujang. Soooo I decided to take the more traditional route, and used the takenoko to make two more common dishes - 炊き込みご飯 (rice steamed together with takenoko and carrots) and 若竹煮 (wakame and takenoko boiled in dashi, soy sauce, and a couple of other things).

End result = awesome! It wasn't disastrous at all...in fact it was really, really good. I lived off of the takenoko for that entire week - because honestly one of that size is a pretty good amount for someone living alone.

I wonder if they sell fresh takenoko back in the States too...?