These are sold as 天然海笋 (tiān rán hǎi sǔn), which means ‘Natural Sea Bamboo’. However, a search for sea bamboo on the internet in English or Chinese returns several answers, none of which fit these. One option offered is Sea Bamboo (Ecklonia maxima) 南极海笋 (nán jí hǎi sǔn, literally South Pole sea bamboo), but that only seems to grow around South Africa making it an unlikely candidate and anyway, it doesn’t look the same. Another appears only around Chile. Those results concerning animal species are definitely ruled out
So, no positive identification, for now.
These little tubes seem to be the stems of a young variety of kemp which have been dried and chopped into approximately 6 cm / 2.4 inch pieces. They are rock hard when purchased and require 3 hours soaking to rehydrate them, after which they expand to around 8 cm / 3.2 inches.
Dried Sea Bamboo
The rehydrated stems are slimy to the touch but that disappears on cooking. They remain slightly firm on the teeth. The tubes areadded to soups and hotpots and can also be stir fried.
Rehydrated
According to the packaging
Quote“Sea bamboo shoots are collected from the deep sea at an average temperature of 4℃. The seaweed essence contained in them is higher than that of ordinary algae. Sea bamboo shoots are rich in collagen, calcium, iodine, protein and amino acids. The taste is tender and dense and the nutrition is easily absorbed by the human body.”
(My translation)
