I mentioned dried maitake mushrooms back in 2019 but today I took delivery of some fresh from Yunnan province.
Grifola frondosa is known by many names such as maitake (舞茸 or マイタケ, "dancing mushroom in Japanese, hen-of-the-woods, ram's head or sheep's head in English and 舞菇 (wǔ gū), 贝叶多孔菌 (bèi yè duō kǒng jūn), 云蕈 (yún xùn ), 栗子蘑 (lì zǐ mó), 栗蘑 (lì mó ), 千佛菌 (qiān fú jūn), 莲花菌 (lián huā jùn), 甜瓜板 (tián guā bǎn), 奇果菌 (qí guǒ jūn), or 叶奇果菌 (yè qí guǒ jūn) in Chinese.
It is native to the northern hemisphere from North America, across Europe and to Asia, including China and Japan, where it is particularly valued for dinner. Most in China seems to go mainly to TCM with all the usual unproven medical waffle that entails. Friends here are surprised to see it being eaten. Me likes.
