Moganshan Bamboo Shoots
Fresh bamboo shoots cut from the hills around Moganshan in Deqing county, most often braised in soy sauce and sugar or simmered with pickled greens and eaten with rice.
How to eat it
The shoots come cut into finger-length pieces, already peeled and cooked, so there is nothing to remove. Pick a piece up with chopsticks and eat it in one or two bites; the tip is the most tender part and the base is firmer. The braised version is glossy and slightly sweet and is meant to be eaten with plain rice, which balances the soy. In the pickled-greens version, eat the shoots and greens together and spoon the broth over the rice. Fresh shoots are only in season for a few weeks; outside spring you will usually get dried or preserved ones.
The story behind the dish
Moganshan's slopes are covered in bamboo, and shoots have been a cash crop for the villages below the mountain for as long as records mention the area. The spring harvest is short, so families dry, salt or pickle much of it for the rest of the year, and the dried version is a common gift from the district. The fresh shoot dishes served today are farmhouse cooking rather than restaurant inventions, simple braises that let the vegetable's natural sweetness come through. The name refers to the place of origin rather than to any particular recipe, and menus will list several preparations under it.
For reference
Every kitchen does it its own way. What follows is the typical version — ingredients, heat and price shift from city to city and from one restaurant to the next, so take it as a guide rather than a fixed recipe.