Take your time to look at that pic. It's gotta be a steak right? It even looks greasy and all! I bet you'll be shocked to know that what you're staring at is not only 100% vegan, but also organic and free of agrochemicals?
What you're looking at is actually a mushroom known as "cow's tongue" and it's scientific name is fistulina antartica. It grows on nothofagus antartica trees and is a southern relative of fistulina hepatica.
We found a gigantic specimen of this fungi while hunting for mycena galericulata (no common name for this one apparently) for lunch. When we were over I spotted from the distance this beauty:
My mom cooked the whole mushroom without slicing it, which allowed it to have that meaty texture. Some onions, garlic and cherry tomatoes from the greenhouse (only way to grow tomatoes in this area of the world), did for a great mix.
After a while of cooking this was the aspect. Really looks like meat, right?
Fungi kingdom is really magical and surprising. Have a look at these:
This little fellas go by the scientific name of cyttaria hookeri and they are pretty tasteless, though the texture is rather interesting, sort of like a gum. I think they are great to add some extra calories and proteins into the meal without having a great impact on the taste.
I've shown this friend before, mycena galericulata, and I have to say I'm very happy to have found out it's edible. Though most literature says it's got a very low edible value I firmly disagree. This is a delicious and tender mushroom that you can throw into the pan without salt or spices. The best part is that it's abundant and available all throughout the autumn.
Fistulina Antarctica, mycena galericulata and cyttaria hookeri made for a very special lunch. However, cow's tongue takes the prize for it's meat-like texture. Though it's not that common, I'm pretty sure that in a more regenerative ecosystem we should be able to see a lot more reproduction of this amazing fungi.
Looks amazing! i already want to try it
Demás pillamos alguno pronto ;)
@fenngen - we have a couple of mushrooms like that here in Asia. Great post. WE need to be CULTIVATING many more of these mushrooms as wonderful nutrient sources for people switching to plant based diets.
Please make sure you CROSS POST this to the mushroom growers community and share this knowledge over there too.
Always fascinated to see how your adventures in Chile are unfolding. Staf safe and post more please - the world needs your knowledge now, more than ever.
Mushrooms are fascinating, such an unknown world and filled with surprising shapes, colors, textures and shape.
I hope the mushroom cultivation group thrives, I didn't post it there since I didn't grow these. I have to confess I've only grown magic mushrooms but from what I understand, the process is very similar to many other types of fungi.
Glad you're enjoying my posts, I try to write as much as possible though sometimes it gets hard to find a quiet moment to focus on what I'm doing.
Big hug @artemislives!
For me, I'm fascinated by the mazing healing and transformational qualities of mushrooms, and the seemingly infinite variety. Knowing that fungi are responsible for the communication under the forest floor between big trees? I think we have not even begun to understand these remarkable healing Beings.
Hugs to you. ❤️🙏
True, that fascinates me as well :D
#POSH
I really need to find a vendor that sells those mushroom! At first I thought it was meat for sure.
Where are you from? These are pretty rare to find so it's not harvested for commercial purposes, but maybe where you live there is a good alternative ;)
Oh gosh, I can see why it's called cow's tongue!!! Everyone here seems to be finding chicken of the woods, but I haven't had luck yet.
I'd love to find chicken of the woods but it seems it doesn't grow around here 🙁 Where have you looked for it? I suppose native forest after some rain pouring would be the best place to search.
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Nice find! Was it your mother who taught you about edible mushrooms? Great that you have such a selection of edibles there and that "Cow's tongue" is something else - amazing!
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Thanks @porters ! Actually I'm the fungi freak of the fam and showed it to my mom. It was an uncle though that gave me the lead that some of the older farmers ate the shroom and that gave me the initiative to look it up.
Ahh! Great to have someone to learn from! Looking forward to more updates on what's happening down south! - @porters
why all this latin mumbo-jumbo, let me name it 'meat fungi' -- i cant use any others, after reading your super cool post. also x-posted it to the Fungi Lovers community. thanks!!
Hahaha, I don't know... I really want to help out with fungi identification and the Latin names help for people to look up the shroom despite of their native language :p glad you liked it!