Monster Mash

That big yellow mushroom from the other day sticks in my brain. We all have our favorite monsters (is that an oxymoron?) and as the Harry Potter films have shown us, some of those monsters arise from anxieties about things that have been granted huge importance. Who can forget that giant spider lumbering out of the armoire. The number of legs on that spider, to my bug-fearing brain, seems to be around a hundred, so I feel for poor Ron. The figment of his anxiety is deflated, brought down to a laughable level when Ron Weasley casts the Riddikulus spell, fitting out the spider with a zillion roller skates. What was out of proportion is literally made ridiculous.



The enormous spider, as well as the unnaturally large cobra that sprung upon another young wizard in the classroom exercise, highlights the definition of the word "monster" and how yesterday's Hen-of-the-Woods fits with it. When looking at what makes something monstrous, the object seen violates our sense of proportion cultivated through personal experiences and/or social expectations.

Gulliver Exhibited to the Brobdingnag Farmer by Richard Redgrave. Thanks to Wikipedia.

Comic book cover by Lilian Chesney. Thanks to Wikipedia.

The appearance of the giant mushroom and the Boggarts in our respective home environments somewhat  modulates our responses to the strangers, granting a measure of safety. But think of what happens when we encounter the monstrous on our travels. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (1726) offers us Lemuel Gulliver's account of the incredible sights and creatures found on distant shores. Gulliver's encounter with the tiny inhabitants of Lilliput and the oversized ones in Brobdingnag show us how the idea of the monstrous can turn upon the viewer himself. Who is really out of proportion, when we consider the perspective of the viewer? Notice how these two populations come from two physical extremes, never quite allowing Gulliver to reaffirm his own sense of proportion as he had learned it. It's a wild kind of uniqueness, causing Gulliver to seem less human and allowing him to disregard the humanity of both the Lilliputions and the Brobdingnagians.

Of course, physical appearance plays only one part of a traveler's disorientation when encountering a new environment and its people. Behavior, speech, clothing, eating preferences, hygiene -- these are some of the other factors that contribute to the confusion and lack of reference points that can cause a traveler to sense as though he or she has landed in a land filled with monsters. I wonder if that mushroom felt the same when he or she arrived in Florence.

Hen-of-the-Woods, Ram's Head, or Sheep's Head

Yowza! I was walking little Joey yesterday morning and ran into three dudes looking at something really odd in the back of a truck. At 8am, my local restaurant, Side Street Cafe, often takes deliveries from ordinary-looking trucks. This time it was really a different story.

Unretouched photo!

I apologize to this man for not getting his permission to blog this photo, but the group of three guys did say it was okay to take the photo. I just had to get it!

I am embarrassed to say my first question was, "Is it real?"

Dude 2: "Yup. And I'm buying it."
Florentina: "What is it?"
Dude 1: "Hen of the Woods."
Florentina: "So you'd cook it with chicken?"
Dude 2: "Heck, it can take the place of chicken."
(I can't remember what Dude 3 was saying or doing; perhaps he was making friends with Joey.)

Doesn't it look like some gigantic turkey with its feathers all ruffled? I imagine this must look so beautiful out in the woods, where the foragers got it. Maybe this ought to be called Turkey-of-the-Woods.

I had no idea such things were growing around here.


For you public television food fanatics, this is the fluorescent version of the maitake mushroom that Ming Tsai often talks about and uses in his cooking show, "Simply Ming." He has promoted its healthful qualities to viewers, as well as how tasty it is. But his maitakes are seemingly ordinary mushroomy looking things like these more sedate fellows below.  On an overcast morning after nearly two rainy days, I don't think I would have been so very excited about seeing these guys, as I was to see the gigantic yellow things above.

From the Forager Press LLC (http://theforagerpress.com/fieldguide/octfd.htm)