Hey, I’m a Fungi! BY JIM MATHIS
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et’s start with a dad joke: A mushroom walks into a bar and the bartender says, “We don’t serve your kind.” The mushroom replies “Why not? I’m a fungi!” I’ve always liked mushrooms, but when I was young, it seemed like mushrooms came in one variety; the ubiquitous white button was all you could find at the grocery store. Those humble fungi did the heavy lifting for beef stroganoff, chicken marsala, pizza and any other recipe that called for mushrooms. They were later
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MAN IN THE KITCHEN
joined by the portabella, and the occasional cremini. If you felt adventurous, you could find dried wood ears in the Oriental food shop, and maybe some dried porcinis in the Italian section. Every once in a great while, someone would tip you off to some fresh morels, but those days were few. Thankfully we’ve got many more choices for our favorite fungus. We’ve even got a local grower here in the Sioux Empire who supplies local restaurants and stores with a great selection of king
