Autumn Calls For Mushrooms

How many types of mushroom do you know or find at the supermarket near you? Here in Japan, mushroom is almost inevitable in day to day cooking. We have about 9 typical Japanese mushrooms sold in the market, such as dried shitake, raw shitake, enokidake (white- see photo), eringi (or japanese-king-trumpet-mushroom - see photo), nameko, hiratake, funasimeji, maitake and matsutake mushroom.

Mushroom contains fibre, vitamin B1, B2, D2 and lots of important minerals, like Potassium/K, Lin, Iron and important source of Amino acid. Autumn is also the best time to eat mushrooms since it is the season for collecting mushrooms.

I heard from a radio news that in Canada shiitake mushroom is considered a special gourmet. In Japan "matsutake mushroom" (left) is the so called "king of mushroom", not only that it is very rare, but it is also the most expensive mushroom (the cheap one is from 2000 Yen each). People are willing to pay such price for its great flavor and aroma. There is even a special tour for the local people to walk up the mountain and find wild matsutake, or a gourmet tour for matsutake lovers.

The truth is, many matsutake sold in Japan are actually imported from countries like China and Canada ... :) business is always attractive for this "rare" and "wanted" items.

Note:

*Do you know that dried shiitake has the highest level of potassium, calcium, lin and iron compared to other mushrooms?

*Do you know about beta-glucan, found in shiitake and maitake, is a substance that can increase immunity system and is currently studied in Japan to possibly become a natural remedy for swine flu? For further info about beta-glucan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta-glucan