= Such Stupid Things =

I'm at at point in my life where I feel it's no longer appropriate to not like certain kinds of foods. In my youth, I was a very picky eater, as are lots of people. But by all reasonable metrics I am now, indeed, grown-up. So I should like grown-up foods. To my credit, the list of things I irrationally shy away from has shrunk considerably since college. I'm down with raw tomatoes, coffee and any sort of raw fish you might want to throw at me. But there are a few hold-outs: non-deep-fried shellfish, eggplant, and most notably, mushrooms.

Mushrooms of all types have long made me uncomfortable. They look strange, they have a weird texture, and their death-eating role in the food chain is a little unsettling. But at this point I just feel guilty - how can I not be excited about an ingredient so frequently used by the Iron Chefs? So I've started a little project: everytime I drop into the Monterey Market I have to go home with a new kind of fungus.

So far, good progress has been made. Our grilled portobellos, though hardly adventurous, tasted pretty good. I fried some chantarelles in butter. They smelled amazing... strongly reminiscent of Christmas for some reasone, but I'm not quite ready for the taste. And I wish I could remember the name of the last batch I picked up, because I dare say, they were very good.

So if anyone out there has advice or mushroom-treatment suggestions for a non-mushroom lover, I'd love to hear them. Because I think this little project is working...