Meeting April 3rd
The next meeting will be on Monday, April 3rd, at 6:30 PM in Room 101 at the Casa Del Prado in Balboa Park. Our speaker will be our own myco-guru, Elio Schaechter. His topic will be "How Fungi Alter the Behavior of their Host (in the broadest sense)". The talk will include examples of how the behavior of animal and plant hosts is modified by parasites, notably fungi.
Pre-meeting Dinner
As usual, we will gather for a pre-meeting dinner at 5 PM. Location will be the Café Eleven at 1440 University Ave in Hillcrest. RSVP to davegrubb at ispwest dot com by Sunday, April 2nd.
Mushroom Tasting
AT THE LA VALENCIA
By Rebecca Morales
La Jolla’s La Valencia Hotel has a reputation of old elegance and fine dining. So when Dave Grubb and I went as an advance group to a mushroom tasting (several SDMS members were going later in the week), it was with the expectation that it would be first class. And we were not disappointed.
First, there was the ambience. The tasting was held in their salon, the Mediterranean Room, a long room of mixed Italian, Moroccan, and Mexican influences, a marvelous painted ceiling, overstuffed chairs and sofas, and a huge bay window overlooking the La Jolla Cove. The grand piano was silent that night (Tuesday) but it normally fills the space with music Thursday through Sunday nights.
A table with mushrooms and cooking utensils flanked one side of the room where the chef made appetizers and entrees to order. Arrayed nicely were blue foot, hedgehog, yellow foot chanterelle, (maitake) hen of the woods, white hon shimeji, morel and porcini mushrooms. We could choose any of these for an appetizer of sautéed mushrooms or as an entrée with pasta or risotto and we could garnish it with Oregon black truffles. I chose an appetizer comprised of all the mushrooms sautéed with herbs and caramelized garlic and topped with truffles. Dave chose a risotto of only wild mushrooms – hedgehog, chanterelle, and maitake – sautéed with herbs.
The flavors were subtle, complex, and divine. The mushrooms were firm and fresh. The truffles added a hint of woodsy lemon. We eagerly mopped up our meals with crusty dark bread slathered with herbed butter and washed it down with Pinot Noir. Needless to say, it was a great repast.
If the La Valencia repeats this tasting, I urge you to join in the experience, but save your pennies in anticipation. Appetizers were $15.00 without truffles and $22.00 with; entrees were $24.00 without truffles and $32.00 with. Remember, these are tasting proportions. Single glasses of Pinot Noir could be purchased for $9.00, $12.50, or $17.50. Enjoy!
[ Editors Note: A larger group went to the La Valencia later in the week, and had a less satisfying experience. They chose to sit in the dining room to escape the music in the salon. An obviously incompetent waiter managed to mix up orders, serve them all at widely varying times, and otherwise spoil the effect. It appears that the key to this event is to go early in the week, chat up the chef, and keep him in sight while he prepares your order.]
March Report
After a long dry spell, March was a marvelous mushroom month. We enjoyed a long visit with our guest speaker, Gary Lincoff.
We started with a well-attended Sunday dinner at the Fish Market, where a good time and a good dinner were had by all.
On Monday about 20 intrepid foragers braved the poison oak at the San Luis Rey picnic area, and on the property of SDMS member Will Wilson next door. Many thanks to Will for his great hospitality. He greeted us on arrival with hot coffee and fresh donuts.
After some socializing, we fanned out in the forest for a few hours, and then assembled again on his front porch for lunch and an identification session. Over 30 species were found and identified, with expert help and commentary from Gary. Several bottles of wine and champagne magically appeared to fortify us for the ride back to San Diego.
Monday evening we had another good dinner at the Blue Water Grill, and then gathered for a short business meeting followed by an excellent talk on the mushrooms and people of the Kamchatka peninsula.
Morel Foray in May
At the March meeting, a poll of the members indicated that there is sufficient interest to organize a morel foray to the San Bernardino mountains in May. The Los Angeles club will be foraging on several weekends in May, so we may be able to hook up with them.
To allow time to make reservations and for people to make plans, we will need to select a date at the April meeting. It would also be nice to get a few volunteers to help with organization and reservations.
An Earthy Mexican Specialty
By Maricel E. Presilla
From food@MiamiHerald.com
If you think of exotic mushrooms as luxury foods, you are in for a surprise. The earthy morel, the stunning blue-violet blewit, the apricot-flavored chanterelle, the orange-hued lobster mushroom and other marvelous fungi are part of the traditional cuisines of indigenous communities throughout Mexico.
From Tlaxcala, the country's smallest state, to the verdant highlands of Veracruz, from Puebla to Oaxaca, mushrooms grow on decayed wood, at the base of pine trees and even on the leaves of agave plants, sprouting a few days after the start of the rainy season. You will find them in all their glory and freshness in markets and for sale by foragers at the side of a road.
Mexicans cook mushrooms in myriad ways -- in delicious clear soups flavored with epazote, braised with onions and chiles or in creamy sauces enriched with cultured cream and fresh cheese, pickled in tangy escabeche sauces, made into moles, added to meat and poultry or as filling for tamales, tacos, enchiladas and crunchy quesadillas.
Mushrooms have been a delicacy in Mexico since pre-Columbian times. The ancient Aztecs called them nanácatl, from nacatl, the Nahuatl word for meat -- a name that does justice to the mushroom's succulent, flesh-like quality.
In Aztec mythology, mushrooms had their own tutelar deity, the lord Nanacatzin, who ruled over Metztitlán (the place of the moon) in the state of Hidalgo. Psilocybe mushrooms and other hallucinogenic species, which the Aztecs called teonanácatl (''flesh of the gods'') were used in religious rituals.
The practice continues to this day, particularly in Oaxaca, where shamans conduct all-night séances for those seeking cures or advice under the influence of psilocybin, the chemical compound responsible for the psilocybe's hallucinatory attributes. Perhaps because of their ancient connection with the moon, these ''sacred'' mushrooms are often harvested at night during the new moon.
I first encountered Mexico's marvelous mushroom cuisine in Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz state, while staying at the country home of my friend Raquel Torres, an anthropologist turned restaurateur. Located high in cool, forested mountains, Xalapa and environs are an ideal breeding ground for mushrooms. Women seated at the edge of the road sold luscious morels (Morchella esculenta), dubbed pancita or tripe for their beehive structure, trumpet-shaped yellow chanterelles (Cantharellus cibarius), called duraznillos (little peaches) for their flavor, and plump boletes (Boletus Edulis), called pambazos and setas in Veracruz.
At her restaurants, Raquel mostly cooked with cultivated mushrooms like champignons (Agaricus bisporus) and oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus). Mexico is an important producer of these two species as well as shiitake mushrooms (Lentinus edodes), which find avid markets in Japan, the United States and Europe.
Foraging for wild mushrooms is a potentially important source of revenue for some indigenous communities. Matsutake, known in Mexico as hongo blanco de pino, for example, is coveted by the Japanese, who are willing to pay a premium for it. Mexican authorities are drawing up measures to encourage and regulate foraging, recognizing it as a form of sustainable agriculture that is both kind to the environment and important for the survival of traditional foodways.
With just a few ingredients -- an assortment of exotic and cultivated mushrooms, fresh or dried Mexican chiles, a handful of familiar flavoring vegetables like garlic, onion and bell pepper -- you can duplicate some of the tasty mushroom dishes of Veracruz. Just be sure to pick plump, fresh-looking fungi, avoiding woody, dried-out specimens.
Mushrooms come in a broad array of flavors -- fruity, woodsy, spicy, peppery -- but they also have a wonderful capacity for absorbing other flavors. There is nothing like the sweet, pungent essence of sautéed garlic and onions and the herbaceous heat of fresh chiles to turn these mysterious offspring of the woods into succulent meat, nanácatl.
Culinary historian Maricel E. Presilla is the chef/co-owner of Cucharamama and Zafra in Hoboken, N.J. Her latest book is The New Taste of Chocolate.
Mushroom Mardi Gras
Morgan Hill - It's time once again to put on your Mardi Gras beads and masks during the Memorial Day Weekend for the 27th annual Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras, Saturday, May 27 and 28.
Last year's event proved to be a huge success with the move to downtown. The response from visitors, vendors, downtown merchants and other participants was very positive, with a consensus that downtown was a great 'new' home for the festival.
This year's event will again encompass six blocks throughout downtown. Some features of the festival include gourmet food booths, arts, crafts, beer garden and wine tent, entertainment, Mardi Gras parade and stage shows, business exhibits and Munchkin Land for the kids. And, new this year, to kick off the festival, there will be a Friday night event on May 26.
As a nonprofit, charitable organization, the purpose of the Morgan Hill Mushroom Mardi Gras is to provide educational scholarships to seniors in the Morgan Hill Unified School District. The festival also supports many nonprofit clubs and organizations by either donating money for their volunteer services or providing booths for their own fundraising efforts.
For more information, see: www.mhmushroommardigras.com
New Mexico Mycological Society Annual Foray
24-27 August, 2006
Los Alamos, NM
Foray in northern New Mexico will include piñon-juniper, ponderosa pine, and fir-spruce habitats. We will visit areas in the Santa Fe National Forest and the Valles Caldera National Preserve. Registration requires membership in NMMS or NAMA. Cost, Lodging, and other details should be available soon.
Crested Butte Wild Mushroom Festival
This year we will have 3 days of forays and mushroom identification workshops led, as in prior years, by Larry Evans. We will add a field workshop on one section of the forays, “Photographing Wild Mushrooms.” We will also have 3 days of our increasingly heralded “Cooking with Wild Mushrooms Workshop/ Luncheons” led by some of Crested Butte’s leading gourmet chefs.
In addition to 2 sessions of the popular, “Medicine, Mushrooms and You” workshop led, once again, by David “Dr. Dave” Teitler, we will have 2 sessions of a new workshop entitled “Amanitas: From Delicious to Deadly” led by Debbie “Amanitarita” Viess, a biologist, artist, and the education chair for the Mycological Society of San Francisco.
This year we will also have another new workshop, “Preserving Wild Mushrooms” led by another Crested Butte local, Hank Seeberg. He will be showing us how to can and freeze our surplus harvests.
We will again host another jazz concert as part of the Mushroom Festival.
For further information, go to: CBMUSHFEST.COM
Mushroom Events
SDMS Events
April 3, 2006
SDMS Meeting
May 1, 2006
SDMS Potluck Party
Other Events
April 28 to 30, 2006
Mountain Mushroom Festival
Irvine, Kentucky
April 29 & 30, 2006
Morel Mushroom Festival
Mansfield, Indiana
May 5 to 7, 2006
26th Annual Morel Festival
Richmond, Missouri
May 27 & 28, 2006
Mushroom Mardi Gras
Morgan Hill, CA
May 27 & 28, 2006
Mushroom Mardi Gras
Morgan Hill, CA
August 17 to 20, 2006
Crested Butte Festival
Crested Butte, CO
August 24 to 27, 2006
New Mexico Foray
N.M. Mycological Society
Los Alamos, NM
August 23 to 27, 2006
Telluride Festival
Telluride, CO
August 26 to 28, 2006
Alaska Mushroom Workshop
See February for details
How to avoid mushroom poisoning
Translation
"Dear children,
How much you enjoy going into the woods to find strawberries and mushrooms! But don¹t forget to ask the Holy Guardian Angel to go along with you and protect you. There are poisonous berries and fly agarics that can kill you. That the H.G.A. warn you in time, before you put in your mouth berries or fruits that you don¹t know well! But even further, you need the H.G.A. when an ill wind leads you to sin. Yes, some sins look so attractive and entice you like the red cap of the fly agaric or the shiny black wild cherry, which carry within poison for the soul. Holy Guardian Angel, tell the children that when they are tempted to sin, they should avoid doing it, unless they die for eternity.
Deacon Josef Minichthaler
With permission to print from the Archiepiscopal Ordinariate of Munich."