22 replies to this topic

[Daniel]

Anyone know a place to get high quality and interesting mushrooms. Hen of woods and foraged things.

Edited by Daniel, 02 November 2008 - 06:15 PM.

[KennethT]

Anyone know a place to get high quality and interesting mushrooms.  Hen of woods and foraged things.

Whole Foods sometimes has some decent quality interesting mushrooms... when in season, they'll have porcini, morels, chanterelles... lately, their chanterelles have looked less than inviting though, and sometimes you've got to pick through the pile to find just a few good ones... The biggest problem with WF is that you never know what they're going to have from day to day, or week to week... Just because you see something one week, the next week it can be gone...

Sunrise Mart in the East Village usually has some good japanese mushrooms - honshimenji, maitake (hen of the woods) and some other ones I don't recognize...

edit to rant about Whole Foods...

Edited by KennethT, 04 November 2008 - 03:36 PM.

[Daniel]

I agree with you on Whole Foods.. Also find it funny how many times you are faced with the moral delema of correcting the pricing at the register.. Another place I really like is the vegetable guys in Chelsea Market.. There is a great selection and perhaps the best priced I have seen..

I was looking for a wholesale type person that sells things like hen of woods to restaurants.. Occasionally you see a guy at Union Square with a beautiful foraged mushroom but, its crazy expensive.. Think about what a guy who lives upstate and drives all the way to manhattan with 5 pounds of mushrooms is looking to profit. I have this person in Upstate New York but, I have to travel, and its a hassle..

Is at famers markets

Blue Moon Shrooms,
Route 183, Stockbridge,
MA. Tel: 413-274-6674

Edited by Daniel, 04 November 2008 - 05:00 PM.

[KennethT]

Yeah - that definitely is an annoying thing about WF - and then, the inevitable question "are you sure you want this?" once they learn how much their limp, pathetic excuse for a chanterelle costs... I don't understand why they don't give them a photo page with the code numbers for all the produce... Try telling them that the ginger-looking-thing is galangal (which actually doesn't look too bad by the way, when they sporatically have it) AND, if you give them a name that isn't in their list, it makes it worse - like calling a hen of the woods a "maitake" - they look at you like you just asked them to roll around in pig's crap with you after they get off work... sorry... once I get started talking about WF, it's hard to stop...

But, my conscience would kill me (and my wife would kill me again after that) if I ever called a chanterelle a "shiitake" or something... however tempting it may be...

I've always been disappointed by the Union Square mushroom guy - usually, all they have is crimini, white button, and a portobello or something... I've never seen anything interesting there... but I keep looking from time to time...

Unfortunately, I don't have any experience with buying enough to go wholesale... I'm sure you've done this already, but a quick google found American Mushroom Hunters (www.mushroomhunter.com) in NJ... they deal wholesale, so I'm sure they'll ship or deliver in the metro area...

Good luck!

[tazerowe]

Have you tried SOS Chef on Ave B near 6th Street? They have a cooler in the back with great mushrooms. They almost always have chanterelles and cepes, and the more common oysters, king oysters, etc. plus seasonal things like elfs and yellow foot. They mainly do wholesale to restaurants, but I stop by all the time for 1/4 ot 1/2 lb of something for dinner. Prices are about average retail, similar to WF or Garden of Eden (my #2 choice), but I find the quality MUCH higher.

[pups224]

I actually posted the same question last year.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a fabulous wholesale purveyor on Franklin Street named Aux Delices Des Bois. Their demise ended it for me for exotic mushrooms in Manhattan.
Some of the partners kept the name and went web only. I bought some morels from them once. They were fine.
Here is their reincarnated website. Let me know how you make out.

http://206.204.3.133...cgi?22876-12152

[NY_Amateur]

I actually posted the same question last year.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a fabulous wholesale purveyor on Franklin Street named Aux Delices Des Bois. Their demise ended it for me for exotic mushrooms in Manhattan.
Some of the partners kept the name and went web only. I bought some morels from them once. They were fine.
Here is their reincarnated website. Let me know how you make out.

http://206.204.3.133...cgi?22876-12152

Hey I am going to call around for some hen-of-the-woods/mitake mushrooms tomorrow for this project. Anyone have any leads on a possible supplier? May as well save some time if I can.

[mikeycook]

Hey I am going to call around for some hen-of-the-woods/mitake mushrooms tomorrow for this project. Anyone have any leads on a possible supplier? May as well save some time if I can.

Give a call to Manhattan Fruit Exchange in Chelsea Market. They might have hen-of-the-woods. Their selection varies, but I've gotten excellent chanterelles, morels, lobster mushrooms, black trumpets, and I think i've seen hen-of-the-woods there before. It's an all-cash business and they won't list on their site, but I find they are a great source of less commonly found fruits and vegetables.

[purplechick]

There's a new(ish) mushroom guy at the Grand Army Plaza Green Market in Prospect Park in Brooklyn. He's got Hen of the Woods every week and lots of other yummy mushrooms too. I don't know if he would do wholesale but you could ask. Since he's selling at the Green Market he has to be somewhat local.

The GAP Green Market is every Saturday.

Good luck.

[NY_Amateur]

Hi, I need Hen of the Woods for a recipe asap, I saw them at Dean and Deluca but stupidly didn't look closely. Later on I impulsively got the lobster went back for the mushrooms and saw they were all dried (some moldy but not all), I got the 4 best clumps and took them home (for lobster and hen of the woods mushrooms from Under Pressure obv. )

I am hoping I can rehydrate them but I'm making this tomorrow (prep tonight) and would like to use really fresh, willing to travel anywhere the subway goes, can anyone help a newb out? Also I guess if you know where to get proper dried ones that may work as well...

[Batard]

Hi, I need Hen of the Woods for a recipe asap, I saw them at Dean and Deluca but stupidly didn't look closely. Later on I impulsively got the lobster went back for the mushrooms and saw they were all dried (some moldy but not all), I got the 4 best clumps and took them home (for lobster and hen of the woods mushrooms from Under Pressure obv. )

I am hoping I can rehydrate them but I'm making this tomorrow (prep tonight) and would like to use really fresh, willing to travel anywhere the subway goes, can anyone help a newb out? Also I guess if you know where to get proper dried ones that may work as well...

I can't comment specifically about NYC, but I often see Hen of the Woods at the larger Whole Foods stores here in NNJ.

[mjc]

Sometimes you can find them at whole foods. Often times they have them at the Manhattan Fruit Exchange in the Chelsea Market

[NY_Amateur]

Sometimes you can find them at whole foods.  Often times they have them at the Manhattan Fruit Exchange in the Chelsea Market

They aren't at whole foods. I was at chelsea market today but I didnt check, its a bit of a trek so I will call but thanks for the suggestion.

[Batard]

They aren't at whole foods. I was at chelsea market today but I didnt check, its a bit of a trek so I will call but thanks for the suggestion.

Some Whole Foods have them, some don't. I also see them frequently at Korean and Japanese markets (look for "Maitaki").

[NY_Amateur]

They aren't at whole foods. I was at chelsea market today but I didnt check, its a bit of a trek so I will call but thanks for the suggestion.

Some Whole Foods have them, some don't. I also see them frequently at Korean and Japanese markets (look for "Maitaki").

sorry should have mentioned I just checked the one on houston. Any sugeestions for korean/japanese places? I will stop by sunshine mart and .. the other one by there near coopers sq. tomorrow on my way to the union sq. whole foods.

[Hiroyuki]

Maitake not maitaki.
Sorry for intrusion!

[weinoo]

SOS Chefs, Inc. on Avenue B might have what you're looking for (again).

Click here for website.

[figs]

The grocery in the chelsea market has a good selection of shrooms.. They had hen of woods the other day but they were rehydrated soggy messes.

[slkinsey]

Where would they have to come from? It can't be anywhere near season for wild mushrooms in the Northeast.

[KennethT]

They aren't at whole foods. I was at chelsea market today but I didnt check, its a bit of a trek so I will call but thanks for the suggestion.

Some Whole Foods have them, some don't. I also see them frequently at Korean and Japanese markets (look for "Maitaki").

sorry should have mentioned I just checked the one on houston. Any sugeestions for korean/japanese places? I will stop by sunshine mart and .. the other one by there near coopers sq. tomorrow on my way to the union sq. whole foods.

I commonly see Maitake in the Whole Foods at Union Sq... they're prepackaged and are usually of decent quality. The same prepackaged ones are usually available at the Sunrise Mart in the East Village..

[emsny]

Try:

SOS Chefs Inc
www.sos-chefs.com
104 Avenue B
New York, NY 10009
(212) 505-5813

Not cheap, but if you look over what you're being offered you can get very high quality.

[NY_Amateur]

Try:

SOS Chefs Inc
www.sos-chefs.com
104 Avenue B
New York, NY 10009
(212) 505-5813

Not cheap, but if you look over what you're being offered you can get very high quality.

This was the ticket, they had it packaged from somewhere and they look 100000% better then the Dean and Deluca ones.

[JohnnyH]

check Garden of Eden. Not sure about their other locations, but I know that the 14th St. store has a good variety of mushrooms, including hen of the woods.