“Irish Moss”

Bamboo isn't a tree, it's a grass ;)

A bamboo shoot is just the budding new bamboo that's harvested before it grows and becomes hard and stringy.

Bamboo shoots are generally available in 2 forms, fresh and canned. Fresh ones are sold whole and generally used in stir fries.

Canned bamboo shoots are precooked and packed in water. You can find canned bamboo shoots sold whole, shredded, or sliced. For hot and sour soup (which I assume you're making) you'll probably want the shredded ones.

There are also jarred bamboo shoots. You probably don't want these as they are often fermented and add different seasonings to the shoots.

I'm not sure where you are so I don't know how available they would be, but you can generally find canned ones in the asian section of major supermarkets. Fresh ones are a little harder to come by and I believe only seasonal

Kamchin is a mixture of herbs, used for making Persian stews such as Ghormeh Sabzi. In Farsi, Ghormeh means stew and Sabzi means herbs. A basic recipe for Ghormeh Sabzi is:

INGREDIENTS 500g of Beef or Lamb I cup kidney beans 2 onions 500g Kamchin – these are Persian herbs, a mix that is mostly parsley and spinach

METHOD Fry onions Add Kamchin Fry beef 5 – 10 minutes Add 4 cups of water Cook for 2 – 2 ½ hours over low flame. The end result is a thick stew of meat, vegetable and beans. Serve over rice. In this case it was decorated rice.

I found many variations of this basic recipe. Some had a dark green such as spinach or kale while others used potatoes. A Google search will give you a ton of results for Ghormeh Sabzi, and while some don't specify Kamchin, they do call for the same ingredients found in Kamchin.

I would think that the Kamchin could be used for other Persian or Iranian stews, or really in any hearty lamb or beef stew, as it is a nice blend of herbs.