Pour in dark soy sauce and regular soy sauce in succession, Du Xixi never stopping her stirring motion. Seeing the bamboo shoots change color from light red to deep red, she added an appropriate amount of boiling water, covered the pot, and began to let it simmer.
Although it was called "oil-braised bamboo shoots," Du Xixi's version did not use a single drop of oil. The oiliness came entirely from the bamboo shoots' own fats, mixed with sweet syrup, coating them in a "shiny" layer.
She picked up several more jade-white bamboo shoots, slicing two into strips and two into slices. By the time the oil-braised bamboo shoots were finished simmering, Du Xixi had also mixed the cold bamboo shoot salad.
The bamboo shoot strips, combined with sesame oil and vegetable strips, gave off a unique, earthy aroma, different from the "fake sheen" of the oil-braised version. The shininess of the cold salad came from Du Xixi's specially-made sesame oil.
