I wasn’t sure how to title this post because this particular mushroom has so many names including: Lion’s Mane Mushroom, Bearded Tooth Mushroom, Satyr’s Beard, Bearded Hedgehog Mushroom and Pom Pom mushroom. In Asian cuisine, it is known as Monkey Head Mushroom. I have never found this particular mushroom in the wild but luckily for us you can obtain it in the dried form from the Taiwanese Supermarket in Belize City. For a long time I had avoided these mushrooms because I did not know how to prepare them for cooking. The Chinese person at the supermarket would look about me dubiously (because I kinda look like a Chinese person but act like a “white person”) and shake her head at me,
“…you know how to cook? If you don’t do it right, it taste bitter…”
Well, this time, the Chinese person in me broke through and I was determined to try these tasty treats!
This is what it looks like once it is soaked in water.
I did some research on the preparation and basically you just need to soak the dried mushroom in water for about an hour until it gets soft. During this time, you keep on changing the water until it turns clear.
After that you can cut it up into pieces and cook it anyway which way you want…sauted in butter, Chinese-style, in soups and stews, etc, etc.
I’ll be posting up some new recipes with Hericium erinaceus over the next few weeks so watch this space. I did my first test cook by sautéing it in cacao butter with onions and garlic:
Sauted Lion’s Mane.
The verdict:
“It’s tasty! It tastes like chicken!!”
I replied by saying,
“Oh, but…on the Internet, they say it tastes like “beef!”
Hi Everyone!! We are back. The truck has brand new universal joints so it no longer makes that funny creaking noise at the back. We feel so much better for not hearing the truck groan and complain! We had a much nicer time once we started on the road again, driving down the Southern Highway, away from Belize City.
We stopped at the Taiwanese Store, outside of Belize City. Everytime, I go there, I always point at things in a curious way and ask the owners what they are and how to cook them. This is because a lot of food is not labelled or labelled in Chinese only. This time, the owners were having lunch and offered to share some of it with us.
Our Taiwanese Friends.
We were most honoured by their generosity, and as we ate, the lady pointed to the various food packets and condiments to explain to me the ingredients which she had used. In typical Chinese teaching fashion (this is how I learned to cook from my mum), they told me to taste the dishes so that I could mimic the flavours through memory.
The Taiwanese couple are vegetarian so most of their food is soya-based (bean curd mostly) with plenty of fresh greens and vegetables and rice as the staple, of course. In this instance, they used dehydrated beancurd as a main protein source, in different sizes, to give various textures and consistency. The greens that they were eating were sweet potato greens. They also cooked some of their own fresh bamboo shoots. The food was delicious and had the taste of home-cooked Chinese fare. The couple was also rather impressed by Gnome’s use of chopsticks and general Chinese etiquette (Gnome, the Chinese Wannabee).
Taiwanese Food For Lunch.
Here are the various types of dehydrated tofu. I will write more about these in another post. The different shapes and sizes give the appearances of different cuts of meat. For instance, the small stringy ones mimic the consistency of minced (ground) meat. I never considered being a vegetarian before this but I could definitely handle eating this food everyday.
Different Types of Dried Tofu.
I spotted some dried Lion’s Mane Mushrooms, Hericium erinaceus; also known as Monkey Heads. This one will have a future post, I promise you!
Monkey Head Mushroom.
Anyway, back on the road, there were road works on the Highway from Belize City to Belmopan. There was even road congestion and a small traffic jam in Belmopan (wow…never seen before…the country is developing).
Road Works in Belmopan.
There were numerous police stops presumably because the country is on nationwide alert for the wanted man, El Chapo (the “notorious Kingpin”), who recently escaped from a Mexican prison by digging a one mile tunnel out to escape. Sounds like something out of a movie, doesn’t it?
We used “Rabbit Ears” mostly as our hailing signal on the road. Protection to All!
Rabbit Ears. Hailing In Belize.
Homeward bound, we saw a veritable bounty of white goods on a pick-up truck. One Fridge, One Freezer, 2 Mattresses and an Amoire. What an auspicious find.
Super Bonus Pick-up.
Once we hit the Toledo, the road was definitely quieter with no police stops within the district. Definitely the “Forgotten District.”
I wasn’t sure how to title this post because this particular mushroom has so many names including: Lion’s Mane Mushroom, Bearded Tooth Mushroom, Satyr’s Beard, Bearded Hedgehog Mushroom and Pom Pom mushroom. In Asian cuisine, it is known as Monkey Head Mushroom. I have never found this particular mushroom in the wild but luckily for us you can obtain it in the dried form from the Taiwanese Supermarket in Belize City. For a long time I had avoided these mushrooms because I did not know how to prepare them for cooking. The Chinese person at the supermarket would look about me dubiously (because I kinda look like a Chinese person but act like a “white person”) and shake her head at me,
