Steamed Winter Bamboo Shoots with Preserved Pork

Steamed Winter Bamboo Shoots with Preserved Pork

　　Steamed Winter Bamboo Shoots with Preserved Pork

　　Winter bamboo shoots that have been air-dried for a week yield tender, fragrant shoots. Even the most ordinary preparation becomes a unique delicacy because the ingredients come from Nankun Mountain. Nankun Mountain is covered with bamboo forests. In winter, when the bamboo shoots are still growing underground and have not yet emerged, they are harvested as winter bamboo shoots. The flesh of winter bamboo shoots is tender, sweet in flavor, and pleasantly crisp. The preserved pork is also a specialty of Nankun Mountain. The mountain residents traditionally salt-cure their meats each winter, then wash them and hang them outside to air-dry naturally. Just one week of drying yields the most delicious preserved pork — but after that first week, the flavor simply isn’t the same.