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The Mellow Mushroom.
Just kidding. I like most mushrooms I have had. I can never find morels where I live, but can get them at Giant Eagle near my brother's house. $60 a pound, but very tasty.
This year I found a patch where morels grow wild. Unfortunately they grow for only about 3 weeks a year, and they were past ripe when I found them. NEXT YEAR!! I know the spot now and it's easy to find again because it's in an old family cemetery. I think I am going to try to take some plugs of the soil next year, when I find them again, and transplant that mycelium to my yard in the shade and see if I can get them to grow in my yard!!
This. Truffles have a reputation as an aphrodesiac. My take is that the last thing on your mind while eating them is sex, but then you will do anything for another bite. They deserve a true chef to serve them. One of my most memorable culinary experiences was a truffle pastry prepared by a great chef. It was a taste of heaven.
The best tasting agaric is agaricus Augustus. It's rare, but when you find one it is huge. You can slice steaks off of it.
Chanterelles and morels are common around here. It's easy in the spring or fall to have a plate full of mushrooms with a steak under there somewhere. Chanterelles are mycorrhizal with Douglas fir above about 2500'. Morels fruit heavily in the spring in burned over ground after forest fires.
I sometimes get a decent fruiting of agaricus campestris. My recipe for mushroom soup starts:
Fill a large pot with chopped mushrooms
Add the stock of one chicken
...
I also fire up the pressure canner and can my own. You have to use pressure to avoid botulism.
I have a friend who lives on the coast who often finds wheelbarrow loads of boletus edulis (king bolete). They dehydrate very well. He puts them on a rack in a room with a dehumidifier rather than using a food dryer with a heat source. Edulis is mycorrhizal with pines.
Wild pickers around here go nuts on matsutake, but I can take them or leave them. I sometimes cook with shiitake.
Nah... when I was living overseas I used to hunt for mushrooms, usually late Summer, early Fall. Wonderful, relaxing activity!
Now, I am getting mushrooms from the store and the selection is very poor here. Actually most of the times there are only champignons and portobello ( "old and mature" champignons ) I don't care for champignons, they are tasteless IMO. But I will buy Portobello.
I love wild mushrooms, and when I have a chance I buy chanterelles, morels, and oyster mushrooms. (pretty rare in our stores)
My favorite are porchino, butter mushroom, bay bolete, hedgehog, and red pine mushroom. I buy them dry in my homeland
I like Asian mushrooms like Shi-taki, enoki, mu err, and wood ear mushrooms for the different texture.
I don't know what you are calling a "champignon," which is just French for "mushroom." I assume you are talking about agaricus bisporus, which is the common cultured mushroom, grown indoors in a sterilized mix of wheat straw and manure. The white ones are grown in darkness, the brown ones are exposed to light. They are the same mushroom.
Cremini! I love all mushrooms, but creminis are the most available so that's what gets my vote. They're also the most mushroomy-tasting to me, and can replace any of the other types of mushroom in a recipe.
The kind that taste god awful but make you feel free and see things that aren't really there.
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