Bamboo Rice - A Damyang Specialty

Damyang is a city near the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula not far from Gwangju. They're known for their bamboo and strawberries, literally their city mascot is a Bambooman and a Strawberry man. They're also home to one of the most famous roads in Korea: Metasequoia Road (담양 메타세쿼이아 길), a beautiful tree-lined road made famous by dramas and movies. We decided to make a visit to Damyang because of Metasequoia Road, but anyways, this blurb is about the food.

So when we got to Damyang, we were told that dish that the area is most known for is their bamboo rice. It's basically rice that's been cooked in a container made from the stalk bamboo shoot with dates and beans inside. Apparently, it's very nutritious because the rice absorbs all the nutrients from the bamboo. It was delicious. The dates and nuts sweetened the rice, and the bamboo gave the rice a special aroma that was very good.

Now you may think that this rice is not much of a meal, but in the Korean fashion, it was served with a large arrray of side dishes, 16 different ones in our case. They were all very good, but the highlight of the sides was definitely the spiced bamboo shoots. I'm not normally a fan of bamboo shoots, but there was something about how they prepared it that made it taste very fresh. It was awesome.