Oh, I don't know. Sometimes the subject can be unbearably light.

_________________
"Only connect!"

https://youtu.be/ezbWVysJAOY
https://tapm.bandcamp.com/

Stratospheric, even. But usually by then I'm floating off to bed.

_________________
"Time is the wisest counselor of all." - Pericles

"I remain not entirely convinced of it." - Nano

I was told the ´dry-land fish´ moniker was given to morels by some of the Plains Tribes. When they came upon a seasonal stream or creek, a dry ´wash´, in addition to searching for places to dig ad hoc wells for water, would search along the tree line that often demarked the dry creek bed. These riparian trees were typically cottonwoods, which often have morels growing in amongst their roots.


Bob

_________________
Not everything you can count, counts. And not everything that counts, can be counted

The Expert's Mind has few possibilities.
The Beginner's mind has endless possibilities.
Shunryu Suzuki, Roshi

And I thought the name was an Appalachian thing.

_________________
"Time is the wisest counselor of all." - Pericles

"I remain not entirely convinced of it." - Nano

As Wanderer pointed out, Paul´s strain of block grown shii-take are quite fragrant, which leads to their other Chinese name ´fragrant mushroom´.香菰 xiang1gu1.

Bob

_________________
Not everything you can count, counts. And not everything that counts, can be counted

The Expert's Mind has few possibilities.
The Beginner's mind has endless possibilities.
Shunryu Suzuki, Roshi

Ah! I see. What do they smell like?

_________________
"Time is the wisest counselor of all." - Pericles

"I remain not entirely convinced of it." - Nano

It´s hard to describe, and unfortunately my international keyboard doesn´t yet have the ´smell-writer´ extension. A kind of dark, funky, savoury smell. If you get the dried ones in your local Asian grocery and toss them into boiling water you can get the sense (scents ) of it.

Bob

_________________
Not everything you can count, counts. And not everything that counts, can be counted

The Expert's Mind has few possibilities.
The Beginner's mind has endless possibilities.
Shunryu Suzuki, Roshi

I suppose by now it's eminently clear that I haven't yet had shiitake mushrooms in my kitchen. Yes, I live under a rock.

_________________
"Time is the wisest counselor of all." - Pericles

"I remain not entirely convinced of it." - Nano

A word of caution: Get ´em fresh at your local organic farmers market. Some of the dried ones out of SE Asia are grown with some wicked pesticides. ´Course, about the tiny mushroom maggots you find in your wild found ´shrooms, my Mushroom Guru used to say: At least you know what they´ve been eating.

Bob

_________________
Not everything you can count, counts. And not everything that counts, can be counted

The Expert's Mind has few possibilities.
The Beginner's mind has endless possibilities.
Shunryu Suzuki, Roshi

Excellent points all.

_________________
"Time is the wisest counselor of all." - Pericles

"I remain not entirely convinced of it." - Nano

Yup, funky and savory, for sure. I also detected an astringent characteristic..almost like garlic or shallot.

_________________
│& ¼║: ♪♪♫♪ ♫♪♫♪ :║

One of my absolute favorite Thai dishes is a ´Black Mushroom Stew´ http://www.realthairecipes.com/glossary ... mushrooms/
My friends from Chengdu have a luscious SiChuan take on this as well.

Bob

_________________
Not everything you can count, counts. And not everything that counts, can be counted

The Expert's Mind has few possibilities.
The Beginner's mind has endless possibilities.
Shunryu Suzuki, Roshi

Fresh shiitakes are another of life's pleasures. To me they have a spicy, almost horseradish-like, taste. The texture is also delicate, so for people who are turned off by the texture of button mushrooms, they may be palatable.

I had lobster mushrooms once, again courtesy of my mushroom-gathering friend. Way cool.

_________________
Charlie
Whorfin Woods
One cat short of crazy.

Damn. I love horseradish. Now I absolutely have to check it out.

_________________
"Time is the wisest counselor of all." - Pericles

"I remain not entirely convinced of it." - Nano

There´s a wider taste range for shiitakes than you might expect. In Japan they grade them into four classes, with the ´Donko´ at the top. But actually this has more to do with appearance than flavor. Once you go to mainland Asia it is more like the Wild West. In the steamier jungle parts of China and SE Asia, you get a wider variety, some even having slight morphological anomalies. My guru was convinced there are Lentinula Edodes (Shiitake) lurking out in the bush to widen the field further.
Chas, I´ve never yet had the pleasure of the Lobster ´Shrooms, but I had a small secret patch that reliably produced a few
Russula Xerampalina--the ´Shrimp Russula´. One of the only mushrooms that I found ´crunchy´. I liked them well enough, but She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, who was also the book-keeper, said they had to go to the chefs. . .

Bob

_________________
Not everything you can count, counts. And not everything that counts, can be counted

The Expert's Mind has few possibilities.
The Beginner's mind has endless possibilities.
Shunryu Suzuki, Roshi