Corona hit: why the bamboo shoot is going viral in Asia
While everyone in Europe is opting for oatmeal, pasta and banana bread, in Asia the bamboo shoot is the number-one staple food during corona times. That is according to Google’s research into search queries from the past month.
Online recipes were searched for particularly often in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Singapore, especially instructional videos on YouTube, which are very popular. The fact that young people in particular are now being forced to cook for themselves is likely the explanation. The food stalls in the city, where you could buy a tasty meal for next to nothing, have all closed due to the corona measures. What are you supposed to do if you no longer live at home and have actually never cooked for yourself? Exactly: fire up Google.
Vague little cans
The analysis of search queries also shows that recipes with bamboo shoots are being searched for more than four thousand times as often as before the corona measures. Does that make sense? We mainly know bamboo shoots as those unnameable white pieces in Chinese chicken soup and tjap tjoy from the neighborhood Chinese restaurant, vague little cans from the Asian grocery store (just check the back of everyone’s pantry) and, of course, as food for pandas. In Asia, fresh bamboo shoots are available for purchase. It is precisely those fresh bamboo shoots that are now going into pans in large quantities.
Stir-fry that stuff
Google’s research showed that stir-frying mushrooms and bamboo shoots is particularly popular, as are wok dishes with pork and bamboo, and ramen with bamboo. Apparently, they are so easy to prepare that even inexperienced cooks cannot mess them up. The shoots taste vaguely like asparagus or artichokes, but enthusiasts especially enjoy the texture: a little crunchy and a little soft. Want to try it too? Don’t experiment with bamboo shoots from your own backyard, because they may contain hydrocyanic acid. Fresh bamboo shoots are available in Europe at Asian grocery stores and large Asian supermarkets.
