Human delicacies

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Human delicacies

15:31:38 - 5/23/2025

BPO - In the past few days, seeing friends posting on their personal pages pictures of picking termite mushrooms or dishes made from termite mushrooms, my sense of taste, smell, and sight were all awakened. If anyone has ever enjoyed a dish made from natural termite mushrooms and is lucky enough to experience picking mushrooms, they will be like me - unforgettable! The red soil of Binh Phuoc where I live has a stable tropical monsoon climate and is divided into two distinct rainy and sunny seasons in the year, so when May comes, the first scattered rains of the season begin to touch the ground, making the red basalt soil soft, which is also the time when people gather to look for termite mushrooms.

The time when rain and sunshine alternate is when termite mushrooms appear. The smell of damp soil after rain mixed with the smell of rotting leaves creates a unique flavor that only mushroom pickers can experience. Rubber and cashew gardens are the easiest places to find termite mushrooms. According to folk experience, wherever there are large trees eaten by termites, there will be termite mounds under the ground, and when the temperature and humidity are right, termite mushrooms will grow. Another experience is that the place where mushrooms were picked last year will be the place where mushrooms will grow the next year. Therefore, mushroom hunters do not spend much time when they have experienced several mushroom "hunting" seasons.

Termite mushrooms grow in clusters, and if you are lucky, you can pick a cluster that can weigh up to several kilos. When the mushrooms are in full bloom, the entire stem of the mushroom protrudes above the ground, but with clusters of mushrooms that have just sprouted, or called bud mushrooms, the stem is still deep underground, or hidden under layers of rotting leaves. You have to be very observant to spot them. For mushroom hunters, the feeling of turning over each clump of leaves to reveal the mushroom buds, then gently plucking each mushroom is both thrilling and exhilarating. Therefore, those who are lucky enough to experience mushroom picking can consider themselves to have enjoyed a pleasure in life.

Many years ago, people went to pick termite mushrooms mainly to improve family meals. I still remember my father and the elders in the neighborhood, every time they picked mushrooms, they would say, "Today we have chicken to eat!". The reason termite mushrooms are compared to chicken is because when cleaned, the mushrooms are pure white, cooked, they have a light aroma, a sweet taste, are chewy and are said to be as nutritious as chicken. Another thing that makes termite mushrooms delicious and valuable is that they do not grow all year round, but only appear during the first few rains of the season. The mushrooms grow naturally, so their growth cycle is only one day, if not picked, the mushrooms will wither and be invaded by insects.

Because of its rarity, termite mushrooms are currently sold at quite high prices, from 300,000 VND to more than 500,000 VND/kg depending on the type. The first type of mushroom is a round, bud mushroom, which is chosen by many gourmets because at this time the mushroom retains its sweetness and crispiness, while mushrooms that have opened their umbrellas have a significantly lower price but are rarely chosen. With such a high price, for many people, mushroom picking has become a seasonal job. Many people earn tens of millions of VND in a few days of hunting termite mushrooms. Therefore, at the beginning of May, people go mushroom picking like they are going to a festival.

With its inherent deliciousness, termite mushrooms only need to be combined with a few familiar vegetables around the house to have a "familiar yet strange" meal: spinach soup with termite mushrooms, termite mushrooms stir-fried with squash, grilled in banana leaves, cooked into porridge... or a little more elaborate, termite mushroom pancakes. I still haven't forgotten the rainy days, the golden-brown pancakes, filled with termite mushrooms that my mother poured, became the most delicious dish in the world. No need to add shrimp or minced pork or duck, just a pinch of bean sprouts, a pinch of termite mushrooms as filling, the fragrant pancakes, crispy edges, soft and fatty body because they were mixed with coconut milk, dotted with green onions... have become a part of the sweet memories of my childhood. It is not too much to say that dishes made from termite mushrooms in general and termite mushroom pancakes in particular, to me, are delicacies of the world.

… May has come again, bringing with it the first rains of the season to cool the red soil of my hometown. Although termite mushrooms no longer grow as much as before due to changes in nature and human impact, in my memories, the smell of moist soil mixed with the scent of rotting leaves after the rain still flares up. When hunting for mushrooms, to me, the precious thing now is not the mushrooms, but the feeling of returning to memories, touching the past and realizing that happiness is sometimes as simple as discovering a patch of mushrooms hidden under the leaves after the rain.

Khanh An

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Source: https://baobinhphuoc.com.vn/news/19/173123/mi-vi-nhan-gian