Another autumn treat—wonderful menus of fall foods. Kushikyu, our local pub, held a Kinoko Matsuri (mushroom festival) yesterday. We ate seven different mushrooms prepared as kushiyaki (skewered and grilled).
I’d never eaten so many different kinds at once and it was a great opportunity to compare flavors. Earthy shiitake and woody maitake are my favorites. Thin, white enoki are too stringy and they taste like fruit juice; Tod loves them, but I’ll pass. Shimeji have a slight wine vinegar flavor that doesn’t stand well alone but blends nicely in simmered dishes. Matsutake are extremely expensive—running 800 - 2,000 yen for a pair of Snickers-sized specimens. They taste like butter, but they are tough and fibrous. White button mushrooms (just called “mushroom” here, since all the others have specific names) are really juicy and very mild in flavor.
