So this is the second year that we have been invited down to Ito to go bamboo shoot digging with a colleague of ours. It turns out that there are bamboo shoots you should be looking for. I thought that once they start coming out of the ground, then you are good to go. It turns out that the smaller the shoot, the better. They are the ones that are barely poking out of the ground and you just dig around them until you can break them away from the roots and out they come.
Today I was with a Japanese girl that goes to our school and she tried SO hard to dig around the bamboo shoots but just didn't have enough strength or girth (luckily, I have a lot of girth). She would even tried to jump on the shovel but kept complaining that the digging was hard so I would jump in and break the bamboo shoot loose for her to pick up. The last one we dug up was next to a large shoot and was difficult to get around but I was determined to let her dig it out. I gave a little bit of help but tried to be really patient and allow her to get under it. At one point she said, "I really want to learn to speak English!" which was so cool because most of our conversation was in English and she tried so hard so I encouraged her to keep trying and told her how great she was trying to use her English. I was able to get the shovel deep in the dirt but let her do the rest and she finally was able to break it loose. She was so excited and looked at me with the biggest smile and of course I had to give her a high five. I could tell it was just one of those moments where she didn't think she could do it but she was able to accomplish it.
One of the ladies that Rachel works with has a husband that works with us and she makes the most amazing gyoza (dumplings). Joanna tried to make them last year and Rachel and I joined in with Joanna this year to try to make them. Let's just say, our inexperience showed but they all still turned out to be really delicious.
Rachel in the bamboo forest giving it her all.
So determined!
After you dig up the shoots, you shuck them like corn. The only problem is that you have to do a lot of shucking to get to the good part.
That was a lot of shucking. They ended up boiling the bamboo shoots but this was the leftover mess that we ended up cleaning up and it got put back into the forest.
One of the kid's mom made crepes and we were brought them after our dig. The were absolutely fantastic and had whipped cream, strawberries, bananas, and chocolate sauce.
So after I got my crepe, I ate it pretty quickly. One mom came out with ice cream to go on top of it but I had already finished. Unfortunately, there were no spoons. One of the kids came out with spoons but then only gave one and I figured, what the heck. I'll just eat mine without a spoon. I know this looks like a staged picture but this is actually what happened when I was trying to eat the ice cream out of the bowl.
Barbecue group shot.
Trying to get everyone in the photo. Let's just say that this wasn't easy.
What fun kids. My bamboo helper is the one in the hat.
