Dried bamboo shoots come from China,and are sold in grocery and Chinese sin seh shops who have the licenses to import dried foods from China.
Every new year, Chinese enjoy this specialty dish. Dried bamboo shoots are only available around Chinese new year for some reasons we don't know.
My great grandfather's relatives in China today are still foraging for bamboo shoots and drying them for sale. When I visited Wun Chieh, my ancestral village a few years ago, I saw my cousins preparing bamboo shoots and drying them in the yard. The mountain sides are full of bamboo, swaying beautifully in the wind, The wet May days had made the hills so green and the leaves glisten in the sunlight. My cousins about my age would have no trouble climbing up the steep hills to find bamboo shoots in July and August. It is their seasonal work. Other months they work on their vegetable farms. Some months they look for chow yirah or smelly roots and wild ginseng.
My great grandfather took his two sons to Nanyang led by Wong Nai Siong.
Dried bamboo can be rehydrated easily but it takes time. It has to be boiled and cooled in the water, This will be repeated six or seven days. the cooled water would be thrown away and the bamboo shoots boiled again, the process is then repeated.
the softened bamboo shoots would be sliced and fried with ingredients like onions and pork. Almost every Foochow loves stir fried rehydrated bamboo shoots.
It is also a good filling for steamed baos.
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