These are truly amazing mushrooms, I felt imbued with a certain type of madness from the scent they give off as I drove home after my first big ‘Masti’ harvest. Spicy and distinct, the smell is hard to pin down and yet incredibly distinctive once you have smelt it. The first tiny patch of buttons I discovered announced themselves with the odor as soon as I knelt down, immediately I knew when I had found. Technically it was found by casually standing about with some friends in the restaurant industry, shooting the shit and picking chanterelles on a misty foggy morning in mid September. This is what ‘the boys’ (one fabulous mademoiselle did accompany us) do for fun before working a shift; scampering around the mountains picking porchini and chanterelles and scouting areas for the upcoming season. The group had split, with myself and another heading up the slope to higher ground. Instinctively I knew I wanted to walk in no ones footsteps and struck off up the high grade towards a rocky outcrop, following a trail of yellow chanterelles that were scattered about. We rested at the crest of the slope, and found the spicy nuggets poking out of the forest floor, all unassuming and casual about their modus operandi. Had I been paying attention I would have seen the dead black stalks of the candystick flower plants that indicate the presence of the myselium, that’s the first trick, learn to identify not just the mushroom but also the tree it lives under and the parasitic flower that grows above it, so you can zero in on the patch.
Apparently this is the best year for pines in over a decade, everyone is positively buzzing about them around town. Expect all the finest restaurants to be shaving, marinating and grilling these prized mushrooms; the very best preparations will be simple and will let the flavor of the mushroom shine. Certainly dashi mirin and sake will make an appearance, perhaps even a ‘cru’ presentation that even I would be inclined to go for, drool. For those of you who are inclined, go for a hike and try and find a few pines, though season pickers are quick to capitalize on the key areas. If you Google commercial Pine mushroom picking areas in BC I am pretty sure there is even a map, so don’t bother asking me where I get my pines because I sure as heck won’t tell you. Happy hunting!
Courtesy of the fine folks over at Wildebeest, a shot of my hands full of pine buttons!:
