Q. Why did the mushroom go to the party?

A. He was a fungi (get it? fun... guy...) HA!


The Fruits of Far West Fungi in San Francisco's Ferry Building Marketplace

mmm... mushrooms. Autumn always brings my mind around to the fungus among us.

I spent childhood autumns trailing my father's wild mushroom hunts (Pops was all about the oyster mushrooms) and later took a morel-finding course with the friendly folks at the Minnesota Mycological Society. (They charmingly boast they've been "Bringing People and Mushrooms Together for Over 100 Years," aw!) While unveiling the secrets of morel hunting, the MMS preached the "safe six" — those edible 'shrooms most beginners can easily find and safely ID (read Stan Tekiela's Start Mushrooming for more info).

Although it's never listed among the safe six, a recent San Francisco feeding frenzy led me to first contact with a fungus that would seem to be a shoo-in for easy ID: fresh huitlacoche... more commonly refered to as corn smut. I'd only read about cooking huitlacoche in conjunction with regional Mexican cuisine, and never expected to run across it in the U.S. — a notion that now seems ridiculous when I consider growing up surrounded by corn fields. After all, where there's corn, there's bound to be corn smut.

In fact, the friendly fellow at Far West Fungi told me that the reason I'd probably not seen Midwestern huitlacoche was simply this: most corn farmers live in fear of the tasty delicacy destroying their crops. I imagine the divinely gifted corn fields burning. Gnashing and weaping by an American Gothic-styled couple ensues. But oh, wicked irony! If they'd only known that fancy mushroom markets mark up $5 for just a few ounces of the stuff.

I plunked down my five-spot, flew my specimens (carefully) back home and cooked 'em up in an impovised cream of chile and corn smut soup. As it turns out, cream sauces and soups are a classic preparation. Mine wasn't bad, but had I been more prepared, I might have done up those little gray lumps of love in omelettes, tamales, quesadilla filling or huitlacoche salsa.

Goya and Herdez apparently can huitlacoche for year-round enjoyment, and rumor has it that some US farmers are experimenting with huitlacoche cultivation. The majority mushroom market's not quite ready for it, but it seems that huitlacoche dishes are slowly emerging in more restaurants and recipes. Perhaps the day will come when even my home state embraces the fungus delight it naturally produces.