It’s that time of year for the lion’s
mane and the shrimp of the woods. we, my wife and I, pay our old spot a visit,
where we found both mushrooms last year. But you know, there’s no guarantee that
you’re going to find what you set out for. Plus in most cases, you don’t find the lion’s
mane but it finds you. Today, we see no trace of a lion’s mane,
but the shrimp of the woods show up on time. And this white cotton wad like fungus is the
shrimp of the woods. The smell of the shrimp of the wood is indistinctive. The mushroom is named so because it tastes
like shrimps when cooked up. they are a quite decent mushroom for pot,
especially if you take sometime to caramelize them The shrimp of the woods is also known as the
aborted entoloma. And this, is a young entoloma mushroom, just
like any other gilled mushroom. So the “un-aborted” entoloma vs. the aborted
entoloma. Starkly different right? because the aborted
one, well, aborted. it quitted developing into its regular mature
form. Long story short, Mycologists used to believe
the entoloma can be parasitized by the mycelium of the honey mushroom, resulting in the deformed
fruit body, hence the name “aborted” entoloma. but recent studies show it is the other way
round, that the entoloma parasitizes a type of the honey mushroom which is then deformed
into the cotton wad. So the shrimp of the woods might be more reasonably
called the aborted honey instead of the aborted entoloma. Given the close and complicated relation between
the entoloma and the honey, it is hardly surprising that a few feet away, we spot a cluster of
mature honey mushrooms. And some hen of the woods or maitake mushrooms
in its close vicinity, under the same dead wood. The maitake, the beloved choice polypore
mushroom, does have two lookalikes, which I’ll cover in my next video but for now,
just see a close-up of a maitake. Then, we encounter this little guy, a tooth
fungi. This is the sweet tooth, a type of hedgehog
mushroom. See how the undersurface of the cap is covered
by teeth, or spines. It would be a perfect day if we did find some
lion’s mane. But with all the gills, the polypores and
the teeth we’ve seen within the two hours of walk we can’t complain. Yet the traffic is unreasonably heavy for
a weekend. Instead of getting stuck in traffic, we veer
into another park, where we see loads and loads of ringless honey mushrooms. If you haven’t seen my other videos on the
key identifying features of honeys and ringless honeys, just so you know both can, but not
always take on a yellow, honey-like color, both are covered by fine hairs on their caps
and stems, both have whitish flesh, both grow in big clusters on wood and both drops white
spore prints. It’s getting and the traffic should
be lighter by now. So we decide not to finish the loop but to
double back. On our way back to the parking lot, we got
to see the other side of trees… Look at that. a large lion’s mane, just like a white monkey
sticking his head out of a tree. This lion’s mane has found us! my phone just jammed and then died. And my wife’s was dead half an hour ago. But this is life. Now here we go. Beautiful lion’s mane to appreciate.. and
then of course, to cook. And just, appreciate this beautiful fungi. Because this specimen is super clean, so my
wife’s just wiping it with damp paper towel, twice. The intersect reminds me of that of a cauliflower. We use 1/3 of the lion’s mane to do a butter
sherry dish, as we did last year. Lion’s mane is tart so you have to cover
that with some sweetness or alcohol. But for this guy, even with all the sherry
wine, I can still taste its tartness. So we decide to further neutralize the tartness
with cheese and eggs. First, make scrambled or fried egg with two
eggs. Set aside, and saute lion’s mane in olive
oil and sherry wine . Then, heat the bread in a dry pan, without
butter. When the top side is warm, place a small block
of butter on each bread, and flip. By this you can get perfectly browned bread
without burning the butter. Then build your sandwich. Avocado and sliced green onions are optional
but I really like having them there, adding some extra layers of flavor and texture to
this dish. Honestly, I cannot think of a better mushroom
for the sa ndwiching purpose, because the lion’s mane can be perfectly flat. a mushroom steak it is. also I can’t think of a better way of consuming
lion’s mane. Wine sautéd lion’s mane, sandwiched between
two slices of whole-grain bread together with eggs, avocado, sliced green onion and melted cheese, heavenly is all I got to say.