The bamboo shoot namul that graces many spring tables in Korea is better known as a “rice thief.” Parboiled bamboo shoots are crunchy, while the dried version is softer and chewier. Ancient Koreans were well aware of the delectable appeal of bamboo shoots. Let’s see what makes bamboo shoots such a favorite meal companion.

Article Noh Yunyoung (Editorial Team)

Who knew bamboo shoot namul was so delicious?

There is a famous Korean saying about bamboo shoots that goes “the taste of bamboo shoot namul is enough for the chief mourner to put down his sangjang.” A sangjang is the cane that was used by someone whose mother or father died for the duration of the funeral proceedings as an expression of grief. A bamboo cane was used for a father’s death, and a paulownia cane was used for a mother’s death.

This is based on the “heaven is round, land is square” philosophy from Lushi Chunqiu (Mr. Lu’s Spring and Autumn Annals), which was written during China’s Jin dynasty. In the East Asian cultural sphere, the father was the equivalent of the heavens. The sangjang for a father’s death was made out of bamboo because heaven was believed to be round in shape. The implication of the saying was that bamboo shoot namul is so delicious that it makes a mourner forget the death of his parent—a very significant statement given the importance of filial piety in Confucianism. What, then, was it about bamboo shoot namul that tasted so good?

The age-old popularity of bamboo shoots as food

As can be seen from the maxim “like bamboo shoots coming up out of the ground after rain” (雨後竹筍), after a spring shower, the floor of a bamboo forest is covered in emerging shoots that each have tremendous growth energy, with some growing over 50 centimeters in a single day. Bamboo shoots, which wait for spring all winter long, must be gathered between April and June if they are to be used in food. (It must be noted that only certain strains are edible, including mandake (Phyllostachys bambusoides), black bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra), and moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis).

A bamboo shoot is 90 percent moisture and high in fiber content, which gives it the ability to remove toxins from the body. It is also rich in protein and potassium, which helps expel sodium and is the main reason bamboo shoots are used as an ingredient in health supplements.

Bamboo shoots have long been used to embellish Korean meals with their subtle fragrance and delicious flavors. They are mentioned in the Book of Rites, published during China’s Han dynasty, and were one of the foods made for ancestral rites during the Goryeo dynasty. A Study on Preservation Methods for Vegetables, Essays on Rural Life and Economy, which was compiled in the Joseon dynasty, includes recipes for bamboo shoot rice, candied bamboo shoots, and bamboo shoot namul.

One thing that must be remembered about bamboo shoots is that they have to be eaten at just the right time, when the texture is crunchy and the scent is not too strong. Picked too soon, they are soft: picked too late, they are too stiff to eat. The best time to harvest is when the bamboo shoots have grown one or two adult palms’ length from the ground. Indeed, bamboo shoots have such a short window for freshness that freshly-picked ones must be eaten on the day they were picked. Bamboo shoots become bitterer and less moist over time—which also means that they lose their signature scent. If you wish to store bamboo shoots to eat when they are no longer in season, the best way is to remove all water and freeze them.

Bamboo shoots are used in many Korean dishes: one of the most well-known is bamboo shoots stir-fried with crushed perilla seeds, diced garlic, perilla or sesame oil, and anchovy broth. This dish blends the chewiness of ripe bamboo shoots with the savory flavor of perilla seeds and makes a perfect spring snack. Bamboo shoots can be paired with many other foods, including rice, minari soybean paste stew, and kimchi.

Stories about bamboo shoots

There are many other sayings and anecdotes about bamboo shoots other than “the taste of bamboo shoot namul is enough for the chief mourner to put down his sangjang.” “Like bamboo shoots growing on a rainy day,” a reference to the speed at which bamboo shoots grow after a rain, is used to express how quickly children grow up.

“Bamboo shoots are only one season” is based on the fact that the window for eating fresh bamboo shoots is very narrow due to their quick transformation into bamboo trees and that they continue growing after being harvested. Jukchu, which literally means “autumn bamboo,” refers to the temporary yellowing of bamboo in May—like fall foliage—when their water and nutrients are funneled to the bamboo shoots.

There are various folk beliefs about bamboo shoots: the most frequently-cited one is that a poor bamboo shoot harvest means a poor rice harvest. Another is that if bamboo shoots appear in one’s dream, it is an auspicious sign that the dreamer will have many children. This belief seems to be related to the fact that bamboo shoots come out of the ground in large numbers and, once out, grow tall very quickly. Some believe that breaking a bamboo shoot in a dream is a sign that one’s daughter will have a child.