Tag Archives: taste

Day 19 — Menu + Millions

Another teamwork poem today, as a collective of great fungi come together to form a complete poem around a very tasty theme.

The Poetic Factoid is a quickie about the most expensive mushroom out there.

[Disclaimer: As with yesterday’s entry, this poem was written on the correct day (Sunday) but was unable to get it online owing to never-ending mudslides, back to meetings again (should we hold/what to do), & other exhaustions.]

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Case Study: Tastiest Fungi Feast #6: Menu Wish List

[please click to enlarge image]

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Day 19 Factoid – Most Expensive Mushroom

Who wants to be a millionaire mushroom?

Yartsa Gunbu
Ophiocordyceps sinensis
caterpillar fungus 

the fact that it can 
only be found at high altitudes 
on the Tibetan Plateau 
& in the Himalayas

hand-harvested halfway up 
those huge hills while
spring briefly makes
her annual appearance 

means it’s not quite more 
valuable by weight than gold*
going by today’s prices
but it’s pretty darn close

*highest recorded price $138,000 per kg; gold today was selling for $155, 265/kg US.

Day 08 – field + 3-in-1

Seems like there’s a few mushroom memory poems in me trying to make their way out. So we’d best let them. It is an interesting corollary of creative activity that once you start down a certain pathway of thinking/exploration, more & more bubbles to the surface, including things you may not have thought about in decades or even remember you remembered.

WARNING: The Factoid is a pretty shocking and revelatory reveal that will quite possibly BLOW your mind.

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field mushrooms
Agaricus multitudinous 

one of my favourite memories 
as a child was wandering 
the wet grassed dew paddocks
                  in my wellies 

& finding huge white beauties 
with chocolate brown gills 
smelling of earth & muddy fertility 
                  some the size of plates

talking with my parents
several days ago we agreed
don’t see as many as we used to 
                  anecdotally at least 

back then the adventure 
was the finding not the eating 
some things stay the same
                  but others change drastically 

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Day 08 Factoid – Not all mushrooms taste the same

the unusual instance of 3 mushrooms in 1
Agaricus bisporus

1. Button
entirely white
baby blobs of bland
reason for near universal popularity
             unknown

2. Cremini 
brown capped 
no visible gills
firmer texture  
             difficult to source in Oz

3. Portobello
large rugged roofed
flat brown caps 
& visible gills
             at last looking like a proper mushy

4. Revelation
all these mushrooms are the same
the minor difference is age
the major difference is taste
             (you’re welcome)