Here's the thing...the bamboo shoots you get in Chinese restaurants are gross.  They're often the things you pick out onto your napkin, and honestly, there have been several occasions when the source of something funky can be atrributed to bamboo shoots.  

What you see in the photo may as well be a completely different vegetable.  There is simply no comparison between fresh bamboo shoots and what you get out of a can (which is what restaurants use). It's like comparing a fresh spring garden pea to a can of Green Giant, or sweet summer corn to a can of Del Monte. The difference might even be greater.  

Here's my mom's bamboo shoots (and pork belly) cooked in a sweet soy sauce.  The meat falls apart and makes your lips stick together and the sweet and savory sauce settles in the nooks of the shoots. I've captured the recipe in The Chinese Kitchen Garden book and I'll be referring to it this weekend! 

Bamboo shoots emerge in a quick, short-lived, and intense flush every spring.  Shoots harvested at this time are tender, sweet and mild.  Here's a bucket full, freshly kicked down at ground level, about to be split in half and prepared for eating and preserving.  If you click on the contact tab at the top of this website, you'll see a photo at the top of what the tender edible heart inside looks like when the shoot is split open (and you can contact me if you like!). 

Keep in mind that bamboo shoots need to be boiled for about 45 minutes to an hour and then rinsed first before eating!  This dispels toxins that can make you sick.  Do not be afraid though.  It's an easy process and seriously, there is no comparison between the shoots you get in a can and fresh shoots you've harvested yourself.  There are a few other tips for foragers of bamboo in The Chinese Kitchen Garden book (as well as tips for growing and cooking bamboo). 

In The Chinese Kitchen Garden, there is a recipe for a noodle dish featuring my favorite noodles - wide, flat, rice noodles.  You can see how a finshed dish using these soft and chewy noodles looks in this post.

Unfortunately, I have never seen these noodles for sale anywhere except for in Asian supermarkets. They're often bagged like you see in the photo above, or on a styrofoam tray and wrapped in plastic. They're usually found in the refrigerated section, or if they're fresh and meant to be sold daily, they can be found unrefrigerated like the noodles above.  As you see in the photo, they're usually sold in sheets that have to be cut to size, separated, and then stir-fried.  It's easy and SO YUMMY. 

The other day, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Jennifer Jewell of the Cultivating Place show on North State Public Radio. Here's a link to my segment.  Catch Cultivating Place: Natural History and the Human Impulse to Garden (is that the most amazing name or what?), live every Thursday on NSPR. 

Watercress is at its best this time of year.  This slightly peppery leafy green happily grows in dappled sunlight in the stream that gently flows into my father's pond.  The only thing we have to be careful of is that the ducks don't get it all before we do!  

Besides eating it in salads, I love the combination of watercress and beef. It's a classic one and is seen in dum sum restaurants and stir fries. My father makes dumplings year round, filling them according to what's in season but my favorite variety is the beef and watercress. 

Watercress is fairly easy to grow and if you are situated near a stream, it grows perennially, nearly trouble-free.  Learn more about how to grow and use watercress in The Chinese Kitchen Garden, available now from your favorite bookseller!

As a gardener, I love to check out other vegetable gardens.  Outside the National Museum of American History in Washington, DC, I stumbled up the Victory Garden, a re-creation of a WWII era vegetable and flower garden.  In this lovingly-tended garden, I spotted the bright green mizuna.  

Mizuna is a slightly bitter leafy green that is excellent this time of year and so easy to grow.  Being a very early spring green, we're usually eating it before pests and garden insects become a problem.  Mizuna is so good added to a spring greens mix for salads!

Here are some of my dad's steamed buns, in the steamer, just before cooking.  He's a pro at making a dough that is just thick and sturdy enough to hold the filling and its juices together. A couple of these are great for a light lunch, and if there are leftovers, I love them just as much pan-fried.  

These steamed buns are filled with shredded Napa cabbage, mung bean noodles, wood ear mushrooms, and a tiny bit of dried shrimp. If you're lucky, you'll get a little hunk of pork belly inside too.  The high water content in the Napa cabbage makes this filling so juicy.

Natural sponges DO come from the sea. Yes.  

But these long scrubber type sponges are actually the skeletons of fruiting vegetables you can grow yourself (and eat mid-summer!)! Here's an old blog post from my family/garden blog that tells all about it.  Now is the time to put in your seed order if you want to plant luffa gourds to eat and then save to dry and use as sponges.  

If you're going to grow luffas for use as sponges, look for "dishcloth" or "sponge" or "smooth" luffas.  They are wider in circumference than the "angled" luffas used in Chinese cuisine. Many seed suppliers have luffa seeds, but my favorite company, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, definitely carries a wide variety.  

​What do gardeners love? 
Nitrogen!  
Why? 
Because it makes leafy plants big and green! 
How do we get it? 
Soybeans!  
 
Wait, what?  
 
That is right.  The soybean, well-known in the food world by its Japanese name - edamame, is a legume that actually fixes nitrogen in soil.  See the little tiny nodules found all over the roots of this pulled-out edamame plant?  These nodules allow more nitrogen to be delivered to the soil for the next plants that go in that spot in the garden.  This means you get to enjoy the easy-growing, nutty and delicious edamame AND make your garden better in the process. It’s a win-win situation. 

​
Joy and jubilation! Today is the release of The Chinese Kitchen Garden, my family’s story and many years of work.  Words cannot express my gratitude to Timber Press and all the individuals who have taken this project on. I’m so excited to dedicate this to my grandmother, who I did not get to know, but who inspired the book.  I’m humbled to think that YOU may be reading about our story very soon!
 
Ask about The Chinese Kitchen Garden at any bookseller or buy it online at your favorite book selling site.  If you have feedback, please reach out, I’d love to hear from you!