In Season: Shoot 'Em Up

Bamboo shoots are low in calories and packed with vitamin B, potassium and other minerals. Each spring, Eiichiro Yamada, chef and owner of the organic Tokyo eatery Mominoki House, buys his shoots in Hinohara, a small agricultural village an hour and a half west of Tokyo. “You can grill them over charcoal,” he recommends. Yamada also suggests combining the shoots, kombu seaweed and soy sauce into a soup or slicing up young varieties as if preparing sashimi. “They taste like white asparagus,” the chef notes.