Yuanjiang Stir-Fried Pork with Reed Shoots 沅江芦笋炒肉
Yuanjiang Stir-Fried Pork with Reed Shoots is featured among the local specialties of Hunan.
Yuanjiang Stir-Fried Pork with Reed Shoots (沅江芦笋炒肉) pairs pork with the young reed shoots that grow on the mudflats and wetlands of South Dongting Lake (南洞庭湖) around Yuanjiang (沅江), a city in Yiyang (益阳), Hunan. Although the Chinese word lusun (芦笋) is also used for green asparagus, the Yuanjiang shoots come from a different plant: they are the first sprouts of southern reed (南荻), a grass that grows both in water and on land.
Ingredients
The shoots are gathered wild and are not fertilised, sprayed or planted. In the Yuanjiang wetlands they sprout in mid-March, and the picking season lasts only about 15 days. The outer sheath turns from purple to red to green, while the flesh inside is white and hollow. Once peeled, the shoots are blanched in a large pot to take away their astringency and then packed for sale.
For the meat, a Yuanjiang resident quoted by Xinmin Evening News (新民晚报) lists stir-frying the shoots with cured pork (腊肉), with sausage, or with slices of black-hair pork (黑毛猪). The Yiyang city government likewise describes local cooks combining the shoots with fish, meat, chicken or eggs.
Flavour and texture
The shoots are thick and plump, with thick walls and tender flesh. Hunan Daily's New Hunan (新湖南) describes them as fresh-smelling, crisp and tender, smooth and savoury, and Xinmin Evening News finds them tender and crisp in cooked dishes.
Where it comes from
The Yiyang city government dates the eating of Yuanjiang reed shoots to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, and quotes the Song poet Wang Anshi (王安石), who wrote that reed shoots were "fat and sweet, better than cow's milk". The shoots are nicknamed "Dongting cordyceps" (洞庭虫草) and hold a national geographical-indication certification trademark and a national agricultural-product geographical-indication registration.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and checked sentence by sentence against quoted extracts by a separate reviewer on 2026-09-24. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.