Exotic mushrooms can be pretty rare and expensive. If you get your hands on the mushroom spores and know how to cultivate them, you’ll have on your hands a real gold mine. However, taking aside the business aspects of it, some of these rare mushrooms are quite delicious to say the least. So it’s great to find out about them and try to acquire them for preparing a delicious and unique meal. Any special occasion will be made 100 times more special by such an initiative, and with so many diverse species of mushrooms out there, when you try them out you’re likely to find a taste that you’ll prefer above all others.
The Black Trumpet
As the name would suggest, this mushroom actually looks like a black trumpet or a burnt lily. Very delicate, these mushrooms are somewhat on the chewy side, but they can be cooked more extensively to gain a softer feel. The black trumpet can be cooked in a variety of ways, and there are actually quite a few recipes out there that you can try out. They have a bright taste and they’ll remind you a bit of the flavor of eucalyptus as you consume them.
Firm vegetables, as well as scrambled eggs, risotto or spaghetti will go together very well when cooking these mushrooms, which is why a lot of gourmet cooks prefer them.
The Yartsa Gunbu
If you’re looking for a good aphrodisiac, the Tibetan Yartsa Gunbu might be the best mushrooms for you. The story goes that they have been used as aphrodisiacs since ancient times and that those who can afford them even in smaller amounts will boost their status considerably.
These mushrooms have a secret to their uniqueness, however. Aside from the fact that they grow in the heights of the Himalayas at over 3,000 meters altitude, they are in fact a parasitic mushroom that infests ghost moth caterpillars and slowly consume their bodies from the inside out. In the spring, after the caterpillars are consumed, the mushrooms emerge from them and are ready to be harvested.
Morels
Morels are somewhat on the expensive side, but then again most exotic and rare mushrooms often are. A curious fact about morels, however, is that they’re actually more expensive when they’re dried out. So if you want to grow your own culture from mushroom spores, then this fact should be one that you keep in mind, especially if you’re planning to use them for gourmet meals.
The mushrooms themselves have a very unique shape and texture, and they can be found standing up like tiny trolls on the floors of forests. They feature a conically shaped head and a pretty resilient stem. As you’d expect, they are very hard to find, and they can only be located in the wild in a few areas sometime in the spring (usually before the month of June).
Some other noteworthy mushrooms to consider also include the lion’s mane, oyster mushrooms and chanterelles. All of these are pretty unique and expensive, and any self-respecting gourmet cook will consider them to be extremely valuable.
