Free is the Best!

Back in 2010, I got some free compost from the City of El Cerrito on Compost Giveaway Day.  This year I noticed the city is giving away compost for an entire week starting yesterday until March 24th. This morning I brought a bucket with me to get my compost.  I will try to go get some more if I can find another bucket to put it in. I love that earthy smell!  Cracus loves it, too. He tried to eat it as I was trying to add it to the base of the mulberry tree. I think he actually ate a little. He likes to eat dirt occasionally.

While walking Cracus, I came across a patio umbrella stand someone left out on the sidewalk for free. It's a heavy duty one.  Sure it is old, but who cares. It is just going to sit outside and get weathered anyway.   I promptly picked it up with my car after walking Cracus back home. While walking Craucs, I also spotted a cluster of puffballs in the grass on the sidewalk.  I collected all of them in one of the clean poop bags.  I love having these bags handy. They are useful in many ways not just for picking up dog poop. With the exceptional rain volume this year, I have seen plenty of mushrooms while walking Cracus, but this is the first time I found something tasty.

I can't believe I got all these free things on the same day!

Once a Mushroom Hunter, Always a Mushroom Hunter

One beautiful shaggy mane

It had been over a year since the last time I went out hunting for wild mushrooms. I often think about those delicious morels.  I was walking around Lake Merritt today with the pooches, and suddenly I saw a fresh full size shaggy mane sticking out of the grass. Coprinus comatus, commonly known as shaggy mane or ink cap, is one of the wild mushrooms that I am very familiar with. It is very distinctive with the scales on its cap. This mushroom is unusual because it will turn black and dissolve itself in a matter of hours after being picked or depositing spores.  Another sure way to identify the mushroom is to cut it in half as the photo below. The cross section of shaggy mane has a unique kite line. It's hard to see from the photo below, but I have a better photo I took years ago in my wild mushroom photo album.

The biggest one started to turn black

I walked through the grass over to the shaggy mane and found 3 more smaller ones next to the big one. I took a photo before plucking all of them off the ground. I didn't have anything to put them in, and suddenly I remembered that I had doggy bags in my pocket. Perfect!

After taking them home, I sautéed them in some olive oil with some baby spinach then sprinkled some gorgonzola cheese on top. It was delicious!  We are supposed to have more rain. I can't wait to find more presents like this while out walking!

Turkey Tails

Wild Turkeys of El Cerrito are back

The wild turkeys of El Cerrito started showing up under the BART track on Masonic in between Marin and Darthmouth every morning for the past week. I have been seeing them every day on my way to work. Today I had my camera in hand to take a snapshot as I drove by.  I really wanted to get out of the car and get some better photos; unfortunately, like most of people, I am always running late in the morning. The photo says 8:35, but it was actually 7:35 a.m. and I have to be at the school no later than 7:55 a.m. to open the doors to let the kids in. As I drove by, all the gobblers were showing off their tail fans to the hens. As you can see in the photo above, the hens are the ones on the right without tail fans. I always wonder where the turkeys hang out for the rest of the year since I usually only see them around end of October to December. How I wish I could put a tracker or a small camera on one of the turkeys.  What do they do all day and where do they go? These are the questions I wonder.

It's been raining on and off for the entire week. Today I noticed the wine barrel planter in my backyard is full of turkey tail mushrooms!  Turkey tail is the common name of rametes versicolor for obvious reason. It's a common mushroom found throughout the world. It also contains medicinal components. It is believe that it may be useful against cancer. Turkey tail exact can be purchased online or one can just grind turkey tail into powder and make tea with it.

My First Morel Hunt

One of the very first morels I spotted

It has been at least 2 years since I went on a mushroom hunt. The job at the school has been a social life killer.  I often felt too tired to go on a group foray. Lately my energy level must has gone up with all the hiking I have been doing. I am also feeling more relaxed with school operation in general. Last week I spontaneously decided to respond to a fellow MSSF's member's invitation to join a group morel hunt up north (Sorry, I am not going to share the location). We decided to leave at 5:30 am on Saturday morning for an early start, spend a night camping out, then continue hunting on Sunday.

My first morel jackpot

I had a pretty good idea what morels look like, but after a two year hiatus, I needed some time to get my mushroom hunting eyes back. The couple I hitched a ride with were super sweet. They pointed out several morels, so I could get a really good image in my head. Pretty soon I was spotting them all over the place between the pine needles. We were all walking, looking down, bending down, and cutting a lot. I made sure to shove morels to Kelsey's nose and kept telling her to go look for them. On the second, she was walking around sniffing next to tree trunks and the ground. I actually found a good size flattened morel in front of her paw!

Kelsey snoozing with a big bag of morels above her

For dinner we sauteed some fresh morels in butter in addition to some awesome home made spicy chili and fresh tortilla. For second dinner (we were all hobbits for one night), we had pasta in habanero pasta sauce. Just by coincidence, we were all hot heads! Kelsey had a lot of fun hanging out with the other dogs in the group.  At the end of our grand morel hunt, we have picked at least 10 pounds of morels, and we each got a share.  More photos from are on the Wild Mushrooms photo album. I can't wait to do it again!

Another big find

First Mushroom Hunt of This Season

dirty wild mushrooms

The rain season has started. It rained all day last Saturday and Sunday evening. Last night, Chef Pauly invited me to go hunt for some wild mushrooms. He has gone out during the weekend and already picked a bunch. This morning I picked him up and drove to one of our regular spots. Shortly after we got on the trail, Chef spotted a few white puffballs. I was very excited because I had never found puffballs before. Even though Chef saw them first, at least now I know what to look for.

We passed by our regular candy caps spots, but they weren't out yet. It usually takes about a full week of soaking rain for the candy caps to come out. We continued on and went off the trail to look for golden chanterelle. We started going down some pretty steep hill. Chef started to see the chanterelle. I was still trying to adjust my eyes and mind to see what I needed to see. It didn't take long for me to started seeing them, too. As usually, I screamed with joy then reminded myself not to be so loud. Both of us started picking and filling our bags. It was quite a work out as we worked out way down and up the steep hills, but I felt refreshed as we got back on the trail finally with out bags of mushrooms.

cleaned chanterelle and puffballs

Cleaning chanterelle is a lot of work as they are covered in dirt. I trimmed off the dirtiest parts and cleaned each one carefully. It is perfectly okay to ingest some dirt, but I just prefer not to have dirt in my food if all possible.

I cooked some of the chanterelle tonight for dinner. I dry sauteed the chanterelle expecting a lot of liquid coming out of them. To my surprise, only a little liquid came out and it was soon evaporated. I didn't have to transfer the mushroom liquid into a bowl. I think that's because these chanterelle were picked so early in the season, and they have not overgrown and pack up much liquid. Unlike the ones I picked in previous years, these chanterelle felt firm instead of plump. Even though these chanterelle are not as big as some others I have picked, I like the firm texture a lot better. I can't wait to eat the rest of them and pick some more soon.

cleaned wild mushrooms drying in the sun

Abundance of Candy Cap Mushrooms

I am usually stuck inside of the cubicle world during weekdays until it is too dark to go mushroom hunting.  Yesterday the big boss told the only three people that came to the cubicles that we could all leave at 1 P.M. I was planning on leaving early to revisit my candy cap spot. Two weeks ago,  I saw lots of baby candy caps there. It rained almost everyday last week, so I figured they should be ready now. Besides, it's the day before the most anticipated holiday of the year. Nobody else would be there. It would be perfect to go today.

When I got to the trail, I heard voices. Hummmm... I was a little surprised that there were other people here. A group of extended family members, kids, dog and all, were on their way out. Some of them were carrying plastic bags. Yes, they had been picking. One of the kids was leading the dog. The dog was very friendly and immediately came up to me for some petting.  They saw me with my mushroom basket, so one of the women told me that candy caps are everywhere, and they couldn't pick them all. YES!!!!!! I was screaming with joy inside as I headed further down the trail.

I had to take a few moments to adjust my eyes from cubicles to nature before I could see them. Suddenly all the candy caps were popping out at me.  I started bending, picking, trimming, squatting, reaching, picking, tripping over branches, trimming, picking, picking, and picking. I had to try not to step on the candy caps since they were everywhere. I normally just pick as fast as I can and deal with cleaning when I get home. Since nobody else was around, I decided to take my time and trim off the dirty parts before putting them in my basket. The mushrooms are mostly clean on the caps except the end of the stems. Since candy cap stems are just as good as the caps, I don't just pick the caps. I pull them out from the dirt. I was holding my pocket knife with one hand to trim off the parts with soil. I also found a few amethystina. An hour passed, and I had started fill up my basket (see photo below).

As I moved further down the trail, I saw even more and bigger candy caps. As I bent over to pick them, I noticed even more bigger candy caps inside of the bushes next to the trail. They were more than I could pick. At this point, I decided to share the wealth and texted Chef Pauly with a "candy caps are everywhere" alert. He texted me back saying that he was on his way. Those branches didn't look like poison oak to me, so I decided to make my way into the dense bushes and go for those big candy caps instead. When Chef arrived, I was still inside of the bushes. I called him out to tell him that candy caps were all around him. For some reason, he was having a hard time seeing them. I made my way out of the dense bush so I could point them out to him. Now, he was seeing them everywhere. He started picking continuously and even joked about hiring some day laborers to pick the mushrooms.

It started to get dark, and we had to stop due to lack of visibility. Note to myself, leave a flashlight and my new headlamp in my car with the rest of mushroom hunting gear. After I got home,  I rinsed the candy caps and put them in my 8-tier dehydrator. For the first time, all the trays were filled with candy caps. Now I have enough candy caps to experiment with recipes other than cookies.

 Mostly candy caps. one black elfin saddle @ 2 o'clock and  a pine spike @ 4 o'clock.

How to Avoid Eating Deadly Wild Mushrooms

(from top to bottom) laccaria amethystina, slippery jack, shiitake, and pine spike

Two of the questions I get most as a mushroom hunter are "Aren't you scared?" and "How do you know they are not poisonous?" The answers are "No." and "I took my time to learn from experts before picking on my own." I started learning about wild mushrooms after attending a fungus fair more than five years ago. Since then I have attended several more fungus fairs including the one in Santa Cruz.

I have attended two of David Aurora's mushroom workshops, taken many of Master Ken's courses including Mushroom Cultivation twice, participated in Point Reyes mycoblitz and Mendocino Mushroom camp. I would learn 2-4 edible wild mushrooms each year and pick as many as I could, so I could become completely familiar with their smell, appearance, and texture. Until I become completely familiarize with a particular mushroom, I would not go pick it on my own. I used to ask the experts a lot of questions, and now I found others asking me mushroom questions. I guess I have learned quite a bit over the years, but I am no expert. I stick to what I know and don't act carelessly. I clean all of my wild mushrooms one by one and toss out anything ambiguous even if I was sure earlier. Sometimes they get squashed or broken in the basket, and I become unsure. There is no reason to eat anything that I am not certain of.

An oyster log in mushroom cultivation area on campus

Sunday was the last day of Mushroom Cultivation class for this semester. We went on a foray around the campus as a group. The rain season has just started, so candy caps weren't quite ready. I spotted a bunch of tiny candy cap babies that need a couple more weeks and rains to grow. Last year there was an abundance of black elfin saddles but none spotted on Sunday. Instead, we found an abundance of beautiful purple laccaria amethystina, which is a tasty edible. This one was new to me, but I quickly learned their characteristics. The purple color makes them stand out. I also picked a bunch of pine spikes, another new edible for me. Both of them have very distinctive looks. 

laccaria amethystina

Death Cap (Amanita phalloides), one of the most poisonous mushrooms that kill more people than any other mushroom, is very common in the Bay Area near oak trees, same environment where chantrelle and candy cap grow. We found one huge classic looking Death Cap on Sunday. It just sat there in the middle of the meadow all by itself. As you can see below, it looks very different from all the other wild mushrooms I picked. You can't mistake that from chantrelle or candy cap. In addition to the good edibles, we mushroom hunters, also familiarize ourselves with deadly mushrooms so we know not to pick them by mistake. Death Cap is only poisonous when ingested. You can touch it, rub it against your face, put it in your basket with other good edibles (the spores are harmless), even take a little piece, chew it up and spit it out (DO NOT SWALLOW), and nothing will happen to you; therefore, you should not be afraid of it. I stay away from any kind of Amanita since most of them are poisonous. One of their unique characteristics is that they have an "egg" at the end of the stem when you pull them out of the ground. You can see that in the photo on the wikipedia page.

One enormous Death Cap

Kitchen Table Talks: Magnificent Mushrooms

Master Ken and David Law of Gourmet Mushrooms

On Tuesday morning, I got an email about a mushroom discussion panel hosted by Kitchen Table Talks at 7 p.m. in the Mission District of San Francisco. Master Ken and 3 other mushroom experts would be giving an overview of the science, history and lore, dispel myths, and offer hands-on practical information.

I immediately tried to RSVP to the event but it had already been fully booked, so I emailed Master Ken to let him know that I could record the talk for him. I was determined to get in the event and tell them that I was Master Ken's videographer if I had to.

I arrived at the door about 10 minutes before 7, and my name was actually on the guest list. Yes! I quickly went into the venue and occupied the last empty chair in the front row. The event was held in the basement of Viracocha. The lighting in there was very dim - great for clubbing and concert or Kitchen Table Talks but not for clear video recording or show off any details of the mushrooms.

In addition to Master Ken, Co-founder of Gourmet Mushrooms, David Law, Co-owner of Far West Fungi, Toby Garrone, and Executive Chef of Millennium Restaurant, Eric Tucker, were on the discussion panel. All of them have extensive knowledge in mushroom cultivation and preparation.

The 2-hour talk covered a wide range of topics about mushrooms. One of the highlights was the trivia question for the prize of an assorted mushroom basket. Master Ken picked out a wild mushroom from one of his boxes and asked whether anyone could identify it. The only child in the room, who also sat in the front row, went up to the front to take a closer look and correctly identified it. He is 8 years old! Everyone was surprised and amazed. You can see that portion in Part 6 at 5:10 of the YouTube video. He made me wish that I had a child so I could expose him to the wonder of fungi kingdom. That thought lasted for about 3 seconds then I snapped out of it.

For the last 3 days, I worked on the video clips feverishly. I don't work with video clips very often, and I discovered one misspelled word in each of my first 2 finished full length videos after they were all compressed and burned to CDs. I had to redo the process several times and kept proof reading the opening and ending credits to make sure that I didn't skip or misspell any word. I didn't cut any footage off since Master Ken asked me to record everything if possible.

Now I officially have a YouTube Channel. You can watch and/or listen to the entire talk at Magnificent Mushrooms playlist. The video quality isn't all that great but the audio is quite clear since I got the front row seating.

Mendocino Mushroom Camp Weekend - Day 3

I am going to miss this place

On the 3rd day, some people stay near the camp for workshops while others head out for one more foray. From my cabin to the dinning hall, I have to pass a pond and a meadow. The surrounding reminds me of Lothlórien, home of the elves in The Lord of the Rings.

All these tall trees also remind me of Ents, the tree people from The Lord of the Rings. I guess it's not a surprise that I find the woods so beautiful and surreal.

Some bright yellow mushroom on the hill (not slippery jack)

I find a bunch of Slippery Jack (Suillus luteus) on the hill side. Many people regard it as an edible mushroom of low quality, while in Russia, where they are popularly known as maslyata "buttery ones." Slippery Jacks are frequently marinated and are considered a delicacy.

Around 1 p.m., the last few people start to leave the camp since we have to be out by 2 p.m. Well, this is goodbye for now until next year.

Mendocino Mushroom Camp Weekend - Day 2

Coral mushrooms can be seen all over the forest

Day 2 is filled with both long and short forays plus various classes - Mushroom Identification, Polypore Paper Making, Cultivation Seminar, Cooking Demo, etc. There is no way anyone can attend everything. Although I wanted to go wherever Master is going, I end up going on a long foray with Norm's group. I am focusing on finding some porcini.

We stop at 4 different spots. At the second spot, I find 2 golden chanterelle, one candy cap, and a baby porcini among many other non-edibles. I find it odd that I am finding such a small amount of each. Normally when you spot one of these mushrooms, you are likely to find a bunch of them nearby.

Norm, Sebastian, and Master Ken (left to right) cooking up some hay for Sunday's cultivation seminar

Dinner is pork loin with creamy chanterelle sauce, Brussels sprouts with bacon, and candy cap mashed sweet potatoes. I am not a fan of Brussels sprouts. In fact, I even made fun of them when I saw them being prepped last night. Now I am helping myself with second serving of Brussels sprouts. Dessert is mixed fruit granola cobbler with fresh whipped cream on top. Needless to say, everything is excellent. After dinner, we all head over to the other meeting hall for David Arora's presentation.

MycoMendoMondo takes place at midnight

Around midnight a group of us gather back in the kitchen for Master Ken's MycoMendoMondo. Master Ken explains that we are going to cook up various unusual wild mushrooms for taste test, make a candy cap cheesecake, brew some apple mead, etc. This is for the hardcore adventurous people as it goes on until almost 4 A.M. Half of the people give up shortly after. Some people return after a nap. Scaly chanterelle, puffballs, gomphus clavatus (pig's ears), and amanita muscaria are cooked separately for everyone to try.

Master Ken holds a kombucha mother while he explains how to make kombucha tea

I cook up a quart of "oriental tea" and add a cup of sugar to it. After it is cooled down, Master Ken talks about Kombucha tea making and adds the sweet tea to the Kombucha jar to feed the mother.

All the mushrooms taste excellent especially since we have Chef Pauly cooking them. My favorite is the puffballs. I will need to start hunting for them. After we all have a taste of candy cap cheesecake, we begin to clean the kitchen for tomorrow's breakfast crew. What a day!

Taste testing

Mendocino Mushroom Camp Weekend - Day 1

My cabin in the woods

The biggest annual event of MSSF (Mycological Society of San Francisco) is the 3-day Mendocino Camp in November. I am attending the camp for the first time since I joined MSSF five years ago. It's a 4-hour drive from El Cerrito to Mendocino. Since I have never attended an event like this before, I packed everything according to the "list of the things to bring" that Lou, MSSF President, emailed to all attendees.

As I enter Mendocino Woodlands Camp, it is as if I am entering a parallel universe. I am surrounded by tall trees, green moss and other vegetation. I can see mushrooms on both sides of the road as I drive further into the woods.

I arrive the camp around 2:30 PM. There are only a few early birds at the parking area. I check in shortly after and head over to my cabin, #35. The cabin in the woods looks like something out of a fairy tale. The cabin has a fire place, 4 beds, and a balcony. There is a shared bathroom with showers about 30 feet away. After I unload my stuff, I hike back to the dinning hall for the Early Bird Foray lead by Norm.

The kitchen inside of Dinning Hall

About 20 of us head over to Camp 2 with Norm in a 15-passenger van. Some people come as far as Salt Lake City and some come with their little kids. The attendees range from age 6 to 70 something (my guess). We all become fast friends as we roam in the woods. It gets dark around 4:30, so we have our mushroom ID session in the dark with flashlights. Each of us carries a flashlight as soon as the sun goes down. The forest is pitch black at night, and there is no lighting in our cabins.

Norm (wearing brown hat) IDs wild mushrooms for us

For dinner, we have wild mushroom lasagna loaded with porcini and chanterelle. After dinner, I see that Master Ken has gathered a full basket of beautiful golden chanterelle already! He is setting up his dehydrator to dry his chanterelle. I am going to follow Master Ken anywhere he goes tomorrow!

Master Ken and his basket of golden chanterelle

How to Make Candy Cap Mushroom Cookies

To kick start the rain season, I decided to dig into my candy cap reserve and bake some cookies for my mushroom cultivation class. Most of the students are beginners in mycology and never had candy caps or candy cap cookies. I figured this would be a good way to get them excited. I was super excited when I first learned of this amazing little dessert mushroom!

Candy caps (Lactarius rubidus) are found on grounds or rotten wood in forests, usually in groups. In California it is abundant under oak and pine, where chantrelle (oak) and porcini (pine) are. Some of its key features are:

1. Cap and stalk burnt orange to orange-brown or sometimes reddish-brown.
2. Cap small (usually <2 1/2" broad), the surface dull and dry.
3. Fresh gills exuding a watery white milk when cut.
4. Neither the milk nor the flesh change color when exposed.
5. Entire mushroom brittle, the stalk snapping open cleanly like a piece of chalk.
6. No veil, ring, or volva.
7. Odor sweet (like maple syrup), especially when cooked or dried.
8. Spores white.

Saute the chopped up mushrooms with some butter

You may also find candy caps in mushroom specialty stores like Far West Fungi. I picked an abundant amount of candy caps in January this year. I dried all of them since their maple syrupy aroma gets stronger after they are dried. They are excellent in cookies, breads, waffles, pancakes, cheesecakes, pancakes, and ice cream.

This Candy Cap Cookies recipe is in David Aurora's All That the Rain Promises and More... I have made it several times and have some tips to ensure your success in making these cookies.

I finely chopped the pecans in the coffee grinder

Ingredients:
1 cup dried candy caps
1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
2 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup finely chopped nuts (optional)

Everything is blended in and mixed well

Directions:
Rehydrate the mushrooms by soaking them in lukewarm water for 15 minutes. Chop up the mushrooms into tiny pieces and saute them in a little butter. Set aside.

Cream together 1 cup butter and 1 cup sugar. Beat in 1 egg and, if you like, add 1/2 tsp vanilla extract. Stir in 2 1/2 cups of flour in small batches. I add 1/2 cup at a time into the mixer and let it mix well before adding the next 1/2 cup. It's very important that you don't dump all 2 1/2 cups at once. If you do that, the dough will fall apart. After the flour is all mixed in, you can stir in some finely chopped nuts. I usually add some pecans. Stir in the mushroom bits and mix it well.

Form the dough into rolls about 1 to 1 1/2" in diameter. I personally prefer not to get the dough all over my hands because I don't want to waste any dough if possible. I use a bamboo sushi roller to roll up the dough in a sheet of wax paper - just like how you make a roll of sushi. Use the wax paper as if it was a sheet of seaweed, put it on top of the bamboo roller, scoop up a desirable amount of dough and spread it out across the paper with a spatula. The roller is a handy tool in rolling up the cookie dough without it melting in your warm hands. The bamboo roller is available in Asian markets for about $2. Fold down the ends of the wax paper and freeze. When ready to bake, remove rolls from freezer and slice them to no more than 1/4 inch a piece. Place them on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until very lightly browned around the edges. Makes about 6 dozens.

There is nothing else that smells like these cookies. I love surprising people with them and look at their puzzled faces as they try to figure out what makes the cookies so good. The surprised expressions on their faces after learning it's a mushroom is simply priceless.

Hot and Sour Soup with Golden Chantrelle

We Bay Area people are all about fusions. Most of time, I try to make ethnic dishes as authentic as I possibly can, but there are times availability wins. I have always loved hot and sour soup. It's spicy and sour, two of my favorite flavors next to sweet. I have been making hot and sour soup since I was a teenager, so a recipe has become obsolete long ago.

I cut up a piece of soft tofu, opened up a can of bamboo shoots, and chopped up some fresh green onion from the farm. I thought it would be really nice to have some mushrooms. Normally, wood ear mushrooms are what you put in hot and sour soup. Shiitake mushrooms are good substitutes since they are Asian mushrooms. Well, I don't have any wood ear or Shiitake. I looked into my pantry - I have a jar of dried candy cap mushrooms and a jar of dried golden chantrelle. I dried all of them earlier this year so I could have some during off season. Considering rain season has started, I didn't have to hang on to the dried mushrooms for special occasions. I opened up the jar of chantrelle and took a deep breath. Ahhhhhhhh....so good. I grabbed a handful and dumped them into the hot soup.

Golden Chantrelle I picked earlier this year

I can really taste the chantrelle in the soup. At the same time, it is still very much hot and sour soup. I can eat that entire pot tonight. Below is the "rough" recipe for your reference, but you should always tweak it to your liking and according to availability of ingredients.

Ingredients:

1 piece of tofu (Soft or firm, it doesn't matter. Whatever you like works) cut in strips
1 small can of bamboo shoots (add more if you like them)
1 egg
1 green onion (chop to small pieces)
Some mushrooms
optional: Meat
optional: A piece of chicken bouillon
Some soy sauce or salt (omit if you are using chicken bouillon)
Some white vinegar
Some chili flakes
Some fresh ground black pepper
Some sesame oil
2 table spoons of corn starch or tapioca starch

Boil 4-5 cups of water (or chicken stock) and put the tofu in it. Put in the chicken bouillon if you are using one. Put in the bamboo shoots, mushrooms, chili flakes, vinegar (2 table spoons to start and add more if you like it more sour). Add soy sauce or salt if you are not using chicken bouillon. Bring it to boil. In the meantime, beat the egg in a bowl and add a couple drops of sesame oil while beating it. Dissolve the corn starch in some water. As soon as the soup is boiling, pour the corn starch solution in it, stir, and lower the heat. The soup should thicken. If you like it thicker, make more corn starch solution to add. Once it reaches the consistency you like, turn off the heat and pour in the egg. The beaten egg should float to the top as it cooks in the hot soup. Sprinkle the green onion on top and add a few drops of sesame oil.

Simple, isn't it?

Fresh mushroom section in Eataly Market www.eataly.com

Hunting for Wild Mushrooms

Just raided the chantrelle gold mine

While I enjoy learning various methods of mushroom cultivation, I am much more excited about going into the woods to hunt for wild mushrooms. In 2004, I went on my first mushroom foray workshop led by David Aurora, the author of Mushrooms Demystified and All the Rain Promises and More. In the beginning, I couldn't see much in the woods.

It takes some time to train your eyes to spot the mushrooms, and it takes even longer to spot the delicious ones.It is also important to network with other mushroom hunters and get on their good side for finding out those secret spots. The best way to meet other mushroom enthusiasts is to join a club or a few of them. In the Bay Area, the biggest mushroom club is MSSF (Mycological Society of San Francisco). A little north of San Francisco, there's SOMA (Sonoma County Mycological Association). South of S.F., there's Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz.
Earlier this year I had my biggest harvest ever. I offered to give someone a ride to "his spot" since he didn't have a car. In two hours we picked over 30 pounds of golden chantrelles. We had a very good mushroom season last year with a lot of rain in the Bay Area. In addition to chantrelles, I collected plenty of Black Elfin Saddle (Helvella lacunosa) and Candy Caps (Lactarius rubidus).

Black Elfin Saddle (Helvella lacunosa). I like the texture of it. It's great in Ma Po tofu. It takes on whatever flavor it's cooked in just like tofu.

Every year we hear about a few families that die from eating poisonous mushrooms. Death Caps (Amanita phalloides), one of the deadliest mushrooms are all over the same places where I would find those good edibles. My rule is to stick to the ones I know well and educate myself well before eating the mushrooms I pick in the wild. People outside of my mushroom circle do not understand why I like to go out and pick wild mushrooms when they are available in the stores. I like being out in nature and fresh produce. I am also a big fan of multitasking.I used to just go out and hike until I discovered the good eats I can pick while out hiking. Most people do not like rain and stay home when it's raining. I can't wait for the rain season to start.  My goal for the upcoming season is hunt for porcini. I have tasted it a few times when other hunters were generous enough to share. It tasted like butter. I never forget it.

A basket full of candy caps! (Lactarius rubidus)