Obsessive behavior from the East
411: Hosting my first dinner party in months.
Listening to: James Brown covering “Georgia On My Mind”
It’s Matsutake season.
To be more accurate, it’s the end of the season, which lasts only about a month.
Notice how that doesn’t induce any weird reaction in you. That’s because you’re not Japanese. At my favorite Japanese grocery store (Hinata, scroll down a bit) it’s all they can talk about. Like avid Trekkies obsessed with the technical flaws in Star Trek movie #12, all they can talk about are how these aren’t as good as the ones in Japan, or how expensive the Japanese ones are ($100 easily for a few pieces).
I picked up seven mushrooms for about $25, and cooked them in foil in the oven with some soy sauce. They’ve got an entirely unique taste, and a texture unlike any mushroom I’ve ever had. I’m eager to try the same process with sake, which is what my chef suggested.
If this was an SAT test, I’d say that matsutake mushroom is to button mushroom as squid sushi is to salmon sushi.
Here are some recipies if you can find a few matsutake at the store: