BLATHER REVIEW

Foggy Memories: MUSHROOMS

(Here's the entry that I tried to post last night. Yep, I wrote it again! This is, I believe, the 5th time I wrote it. It was so easy this time 'cause I know it by heart now. Heh.)

Whenever we had mushrooms with dinner, while I was growing up, I was always told (and I can hear my Grandmother's voice the clearest): "Now, don't you go eating mushrooms that you find outside 'cause you never know if they're poisonous."
My kid logic always responded with "If you never know if a mushroom is poisonous then why the @%#$ are you feeding me mushrooms?!"

Even when I was old enough to know that my fear of poisoned mushrooms on my plate was irrational, it still stuck with me.

For years and years I always pushed the 'shrooms away -- to the point that I had no recallection of what they tasted like. Friends would occassionally ask "Why aren't eating the mushrooms?" "Dunno..." I'd mumble, "...jus' don' like 'em. Half the time I was barely aware that I was pushing them aside and probably, at the time, didn't remember the reason why.

Then one day, circa 1990, I was eating lunch in the company cafeteria with my friend and fellow pressman Hector. As I ate the beef entre -- avoiding the 'shrooms -- Hector began to moan "Mmmm...I just lo-o-o-o-ve mushrooms..."
Then they started to look good. Did I dare sample one or two of these potentially deadly morsels of fugal evilness? I did; and they were goooooood.

Now I make mushrooms all the time. I fry 'em in butter and garlic, I stuff 'em and bake 'em, I braise 'em in beef gravy. I can't get enough of 'em!
So, I guess my point is: If you refuse to eat certain foods -- foods that you can't imagine the taste of -- there's a chance that the boycott is keeping you from enjoying a tasty dish. Tastes change over time; and not just in food, of course.

So, enjoy those mushrooms, kids! Just don't go eating the ones that you find outside 'cause you never know if a mushroom is poisonous. Mwuh huh hah haw hee haw!!!

Posted by Tuning Spork at February 23, 2004 08:21 PM