Eric's shiitake log continues to produce beautiful mushrooms. Check out those gills. These tasty spores went into a homemade pho (or a scrumptious interpretation). Ever since trying Happy Pho, I've been obsessed with the Vietnamese noodle, hitting up local restaurants and hoping that Happy Pho is soon distributed in Southern California.
Don't be fooled by the box, Happy Pho is no top ramen. It is the ground work for a really yummy meal. Throw in a few homegrown shiitake mushrooms, spinach, scallions and mint...I might just have to make it twice in one week.
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oh man...now i gotta hit pho ti tonight. loves me some vietnamese.
ReplyDeletebeautiful mushroom. i hope to do that too, some day.
I'll do anything homegrown, but somehow homegrown mushrooms are a little scary. I love shiitakes though, so I might be tempted to try sometime. Do they taste better fresh?
ReplyDeleteThe mushroom growing is really easy, You should try it if you like shiitakes.
ReplyDeleteThe shiitakes are delicious fresh but also store well when dried out - they reconstitute pretty well. For me it's more about the fun of watching them grow and the beauty. I don't know when or if we'll break even on the log but for a minimal time investment it is really rewarding for me
I keep eyeing the mushroom kits in gardening catalogues...this might push me over the edge! I actually prefer dried shiitake to fresh - seems to have more umami flavor. I used to seek out the packages grow in Japan, shunning the ones grown in China for food safety reasons. Now I won't buy the ones from Japan either! Radioactive particles show up strongly in fungus
ReplyDeleteAs for pho, check out Andrea Nguyen's cookbook, "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen". She has a great website too: http://vietworldkitchen.typepad.com/blog/ Somewhere in there she has a review of some pho places in SoCal although she lives up near me in Santa Cruz.