A Ukraine Love Affair By Ralph H. Kurtzman October 15, 2007 - ukraine-observer.com
The English speaking nations and even most of Western Europe are often referred to as “mycophobes.” If you dissect that word and apply the literal meaning, at best it is an exaggeration. “Myco” refers to fungi, but more specifically to mushrooms. It is not true that we fear all mushrooms, but most of us are afraid to eat any mushroom that did not come from a grocery store. Many still have doubts about mushrooms that were not seen on produce shelves when they were children, even though they are there today. Western people eat green vegetables, but few seem to understand that many, if not most green plants are poisonous. We love tomatoes and potatoes, but the parts of those plants that we do not eat are very poisonous.
Eastern Europeans, however, are justly called “mycophiles.” They love mushrooms, but the mushrooms that have been eaten for years by western Europeans have not been available to eastern Europeans until very recent years. In the autumn, in Finland, most open-air market food stands have a bucket of parboiled Lactarius mushrooms. A few species of Lactarius are considered edible in western European mushroom hunters' books. Those seen in the Finnish markets will all be mushrooms that the western books say are poisonous. The Finns eat those “poison” mushrooms and never get sick. However, the western books are not wrong, but simply parboiling Lactarius, removes the poison. That poison only gives indigestion, if the mushrooms are not parboiled. Eating only parboiled Lactarius is a little like eating only potato tubers and not potato berries. In both cases the poison part is separated from the edible.
My first trip to a CIS country was to Belarus in the month of September. Ukraine and Belarus have shared many events in their histories and so have much in common. Making that trip even more like a Ukraine adventure, my interpreter, Roman, was Ukrainian. On my second day in Belarus as we drove southwest from Minsk to Lida, Roman stopped the car next to some people with baskets at the side of the road. Just as he expected, the baskets were filled with mushrooms that had been picked in the nearby forests. Many of those, in the baskets, were boletes, also known as ceps. Roman purchased all that he saw. That evening, we sliced up his purchase and dried them over the kitchen stove in our apartment. As they dried, mushroom fly larvae dropped out of the mushrooms and onto the stove. Neither of us were at all alarmed, possibly it is the outstanding flavor or the high nutritional value of the boletes that draws the flies to deposit their eggs in these delicious mushrooms. I didn't get a chance to taste those; Roman packed them up and took them home. There may have been some dead larvae remaining in the dried mushrooms. Even larvae are not a reason for concern. Mushroom flies eat nothing but mushrooms, so unlike other flies they are clean.
I did eat plenty of mushrooms while I was in Lida. The reason for my visit was to help a grower of veshenka or oyster mushrooms. It was nice to see the wild mushrooms, but it was not good for the grower. Cultivated mushrooms are new crops in Eastern Europe, so the people will hunt or buy the wild mushrooms in preference, if only out of habit. As a result, business in September is slow for mushroom growers. The grower's production kept our dinner table well supplied. Roman insisted upon being my cook; I could only watch and learn about what he was fixing. He never measured, so I could not write down his recipe. Both my visual and taste memory are quite good, so I did try to duplicate his cooking when I got home, and I wrote down what I did. I call my recipe “Mushrooms Minsk.” It is likely that the name veshenka is much older than the name oyster mushrooms. Eastern Europeans have long enjoyed veshenka that they found in the woods. While western people think of mushrooms as a delicacy, eastern Europeans think of them as good ordinary food that even the poorest serf could eat if he was free enough to be able to hunt nearby forests. So common names for mushrooms in Slavic and other eastern languages are often very old.
The contrast of attitude is quite apparent. When one visits a produce market in western countries, the mushrooms will be found in packages of about 100g (4 oz); in Kyiv markets you will see packages of as much as 1kg (39 oz). Prices will also be less than in the west. The price for veshenka is less in Ukraine than in western countries, partially because of the price of labor, partially because of attitude, partially because veshenka is easier to grow than the common commercial mushroom, and Ukrainians are ready to learn how to grow it with no preconceived ideas, since few have experience growing other mushrooms. When I am in a foreign country, one of the joys is to eat the local food. Usually, I gain a real love for at least some local dishes. One Ukrainian friend, Dr. Andriy Gryganski of the National Agrarian University of Ukraine, has given me recipes that I want to pass on to you. Dr. Gryganski's (AG) are authentic Ukrainian, but I am also including two of my own recipes (RHK), that I think are very much to Ukrainian taste. There are additional recipes at www.oystermushrooms.net
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