I’ll never find another you…

Yesterday, my sister’s friend gave her some of these…

Ooooo…!!! I thought it is extinct now – in fact, the last time I saw any, many of my late uncles and aunties were still alive. Since then, I have not seen it anywhere at all and I have already given up hope of ever finding any anymore. Of course, there are the commercially-grown abalone mushrooms but those do not come anywhere near this variety. We call this type of mushroom kulat ta’un…and they will sprout wild in the jungle on rotting tree trunks and moist places like that. The old folks used to say that when there was a thunderstorm, the kulat ta’un would appear so if they went looking for it after the rain, they would stand a good chance of finding some.

Incidentally, the Chinese call it kay bak ko or chicken mushroom by virtue of the fact that it tastes like chicken. My sister does not know how to cook it and since our mum is ill-disposed, guess who would have to do it. I remember two ways by which my mother used to cook it long ago when she was still up and about and one would be as a soup dish.I cut some ginger, fried it in a bit of oil and threw in the stalks of the mushroom that I had cut into thin strips so it would be easier for the old folks to chew. Then I added water and egg, beaten…and salt and msg according to taste…

If I were cooking this for myself, I definitely would add some brandy or at least a bit of the traditional Foochow red wine but my parents are not into alcohol so I had to leave that out.

As for the softer top part of the mushrooms, I also cut them into strips…

…and after frying a few slices of ginger in  oil, I added the mushroom before pouring in the egg, beaten and with salt and msg added according to taste…

When the egg was cooked, the dish was ready…

I did not eat them myself though – I only tried a bit of each to make sure they were all right. We were saving it all for my mum and I was delighted to hear that she loved it…and her appetite was extra good yesterday…all because of the kulat ta’un.