Lotus Root

[wagyuboy]

When I lived in Changsha in the Hunan Province, I often ate lotus root, prepared in many different forms, but usually just sliced and sauteed with a little ginger and garlic. Is lotus root available in the US? I can't find it on any menu or in any Chinese grocery store, even the Taiwanese ones out in Jackson Heights. It's starchy and tasty and I miss it, can anyone help?

[torakris]

In the US I often found it in Japanese markets where it is called renkon, besides being in the fresh form, it was also sold sliced and waterpacked and sometimes frozen.

[Gary Soup]

When I lived in Changsha in the Hunan Province, I often ate lotus root, prepared in many different forms, but usually just sliced and sauteed with a little ginger and garlic. Is lotus root available in the US? I can't find it on any menu or in any Chinese grocery store, even the Taiwanese ones out in Jackson Heights. It's starchy and tasty and I miss it, can anyone help?

It's very plentiful in Chinese markets in San Francisco. I'd call it more crunchy than starchy.

[jschyun]

Are there Korean markets near you?

[Hest88]

They're widely available in both in Chinatown and in any decent-sized Chinese market.

When I was a child I loved how stringy they were.

[mags]

Whole Foods in Chelsea sells fresh lotus root -- also fresh water chestnuts, if that appeals (does, to me). Wish they would carry fresh bamboo shoots, but no luck so far.

[tissue]

Do you have 99 Ranch market?

I love this in soup made with pork bones.

[Gary Soup]

Do you have 99 Ranch market?

I love this in soup made with pork bones.

Pork-bone soup, yeah! You never cease to amaze me, Tissue. You claim to not be Shanghainese, but you always come up with examples of home-cooked stuff you're not likely to find in restaurants.

I think 99 Ranch's only presence on the East coast is in Atlanta.

[aprilmei]

It's also really good in Chinese oxtail stew in place of the more usual loh bak. Really soaks up the juices.

[tissue]

The Cantonese do a really great dish where the lotus root is sliced really thin and it is stir fried with minced garlic, shitake mushrooms, and bamboo fungus. The lotus root stays crunchy and is a great contrast to the other ingredients.

Gary Soup, hehe... pork bone soup was something I had a lot growing up.

[tonkichi]

Pork bone and lotus root soup is a popular homestyle soup, but recently I've been making mine a vegetarian version. Just boil the crudely smashed lotus root in water for about 1 hour, then add dried red dates and simmer the soup for a further 1 hour. Sweet, smokey yet clear flavours, it is now our new favourite.

[herbacidal]

The Cantonese do a really great dish where the lotus root is sliced really thin and it is stir fried with minced garlic, shitake mushrooms, and bamboo fungus. The lotus root stays crunchy and is a great contrast to the other ingredients.

Yea, that's a New Year's dish. I'm pretty sure I had some a little more than a month ago.

Edited March 10, 2004 by herbacidal (log)

[herbacidal]

They're widely available in both in Chinatown and in any decent-sized Chinese market.

When I was a child I loved how stringy they were.

I've never liked lotus root. But I do love the soups it's used in.

And as an FYI, there's an ingredient's it's commonly used with, the long black stringy stuff I've always called hair because I don't have another English name for it. It is one of my favorite things to eat.

It's been more and more rare because it's now illegal to gather it from the hillsides in China. Something to do with the environment, as I recall. Prevention of erosion, perhaps?

[Ben Hong]

That New Years dish is usually made with the gizzards,livers and hearts, of whatever New Years fowl we were having, all sliced very thin. Duck parts are the best, along with "set" ducks' or chicken blood, also thinly sliced. No garlic in it at our house, maybe a sprig or two of cilantro or scallions.

To me lotus root was used mainly for the texture and the crunch. It's funny how I always associate lotus root with New Year, along with sei kou (corm of a type of hyacinthe I think). Sei kou , cured belly pork (Chinese Bacon),and scallions is a match made in heaven.

[Shiewie]

I've never liked lotus root.  But I do love the soups it's used in.

And as an FYI, there's an ingredient's it's commonly used with, the long black stringy stuff I've always called hair because I don't have another English name for it.  It is one of my favorite things to eat.

It's been more and more rare because it's now illegal to gather it from the hillsides in China.  Something to do with the environment, as I recall.  Prevention of erosion, perhaps?

Black moss - it's called "fatt choy" in Cantonese. It it illegal to gather them now? We can still buy it easily over here in KL.

Lotus root - we have ones that are grown locally in Malaysia and also those are imported from China. The imported ones tend to be more floury / starchy and I like them better in soups. Besides pork bones, we also add red dates, dried oysters, dried scallops and dried squid to our lotus root soup.

As kids, we used to call lotus root soup as piggy's nose soup as the sliced pieces of lotus root soup looks kind of like a front-up view of a pig's nose (with more than 2 nostrils though!)

For stir-fried lotus root, I usually rinse the sliced lotus root quite a bit first to wash out all the starch before stir-frying it with some minced garlic, sugar peas, sliced carrots, shitake mushrooms, gingko nuts, wood ears and sometimes fresh lily bulbs.

[aprilmei]

They're not supposed to be gathering faat choi anymore because as herbacidal says, it's causing erosion and the land is turning into desert. But it's still being sold at shops in Hong Kong. When I was in Shanghai last month, I saw some fresh faat choi. I couldn't identify it at first because I'm used to seeing it dried and black; this stuff was green.

Lotus root is good sliced thin, stuffed with a pork mixture (the usual minced pork and shrimp with seasonings) and then sandwiched together and fried.

[Hest88]

They're not supposed to be gathering faat choi anymore because as herbacidal says, it's causing erosion and the land is turning into desert.

Yes, that's what my mother told me as well during New Year's. (Chinese New Year's, that is.)

[Dejah]

Whenever people from China come to visit me, they bring me boxes of "fat choy", especially when I was in business. It sounds the same as the Cantonese for "prosperity"

When I make soup with it, I mix some with ground pork, shaped into meat balls. After the pork bones stock is done, I add cut up suey choy, more fat choy and the meat balls. I love the texture.

I am able to buy fresh lotus root in Chinese grocery stores on the prairies. Sometimes, they are in cryovac, other times, in sawdust or straw. I use it in soup, with lots of octopus(not squid) and ginger. Stir-fry is a favorite method also. I prefer the starchy one for soup and the crunchy ones for stir-fry. Seems to me that the "longer cylindrical

shaped" roots are crispy and the "squatter round" roots are starchy? Will have to ask Mom

Hubby thought the slices looked like the bridge on a fiddle...so our family named it "fiddle bridge soup".

Anyone like the sweetened slices at New Years, along with lotus nuts, waterchestnut, carrots etc?

I bought some sei kou for Mom at Chinese New Year. She hoarded afew and has them sitting in water. They sprouted and have stalks about 12" long!

[herbacidal]

Anyone like the sweetened slices at New Years, along with lotus nuts, waterchestnut, carrots etc?

I bought some sei kou for Mom at Chinese New Year. She hoarded afew and has them sitting in water. They sprouted and have stalks about 12" long!

Actually, that's the only way I like lotus root.

I don't like sei kou either.

I do love my "hair" though.

That New Years dish is usually made with the gizzards,livers and hearts, of whatever New Years fowl we were having, all sliced very thin. Duck parts are the best, along with "set" ducks' or chicken blood, also thinly sliced. No garlic in it at our house, maybe a sprig or two of cilantro or scallions.

Really? I've always had it with just vegetables.

[Shiewie]

Is sei kou also known as nga kou?

[chappie]

I just purchased some lotus root at an asian supermarket (Great Wall in Fairfax, Va.) and am also looking for recipes on how to prepare it. The last time I had it was at a Korean tofu place in Oakland, Calif. They served it as panchan, crunchy and slightly sweet, glistening with oil and alongside some sort of soybeans.

[hzrt8w]

I just purchased some lotus root at an asian supermarket (Great Wall in Fairfax, Va.) and am also looking for recipes on how to prepare it.

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The following recipe uses lotus roots:

Stir-Fried Lotus Roots with Dry Conpoy and Hairy Moss Fungi

[anzu]

I can't find it on any menu or in any Chinese grocery store, even the Taiwanese ones out in Jackson Heights. 

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If your Chinese grocery stores don't have it (though I'm surprised they don't), Indian grocery stores might carry it.

[Pan]

Lotus root is available in various stores throughout Flushing, Manhattan's Chinatown and, doubtless, other Chinese neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens.

[AzianBrewer]

When I lived in Changsha in the Hunan Province, I often ate lotus root, prepared in many different forms, but usually just sliced and sauteed with a little ginger and garlic.  Is lotus root available in the US?  I can't find it on any menu or in any Chinese grocery store, even the Taiwanese ones out in Jackson Heights.  It's starchy and tasty and I miss it, can anyone help?

←

Where are you in NYC? There are plenty of Chinese groceries carrying lotus roots. Check out Hong Kong Supermarket in Flushing or Chinatown. They are always in season. And in restaurant as the waiter/waitress for it if you don't see it on the menu. They might have stash it for the "family dinner".

Cheers,

AzianBrewer