San Francisco
Ugly Shiitakes
Have you ever seen these? They're "ugly shiitakes", which I found at the UN Plaza farmers market in San Francisco.
"They're actually pretty cute," I told the grungy musician-type manning the booth.
"Eh, yeah, people seem to like them better than the regular ones." He shrugged.
As if on cue, three different people came up behind me, each grabbing a carton of the uglies, and paid for them. They were the regulars with a purpose, it seemed. So I bought some too.
Back home, I had a mushroom epiphany. No, not that kind of mushroom epiphany. Rather, it was the realization that an ingredient that has been a staple in the foods I grew up with, that is so entrenched in Chinese cooking, can be improved upon. These uglies are about half the size of a regular Asian shiitake mushroom. They are twice as soft. There is no thick woody stem that you need to discard. You plop a bunch onto your chutting board and chop away.
And the aroma when cooking is more akin to that of cremini or portabello mushrooms, woodsy but without a tinge of musty like when using regular shiitakes.
I'm sure there is a more scientific name for this shiitake variety. They have got to be sold elsewhere, right? Google doesn't help. If anyone has more info, I'd love to hear it.
It will be hard to go back to regular fresh and dried shiitakes after these.
Turk's Turban Pumpkins
These pumpkins are so oddly beautiful I just had to share. My friend Christa picked them up at Farmer John's pumpkin patch in Half Moon Bay, about 30 to 40 minutes from San Francisco. Having never seen them before, I spent the longest time trying to figure out how they developed to look like two different species squashed into one, with a warty belt around the middle.
These pumpkins have a handful of colorful names, including Turk's Turban, Turk's Squash, Scotchman's Purse, Ladies' Eardrops, and (for the smaller ones) Aladdin's Turban. Apparently, because the sun hits the top more directly, the pumpkins develop top heavy, like an upside-down hat.
Oh, and they don't taste very good, so it's best to just display them around the house, maybe near the punch bowl at your Halloween party.
More pics of these odd- but fun-looking specimens.
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