日本は面白い/世田谷の米国人

向こうから来た人が世田谷、東京、日本の生活を楽しんでいる (^_^)

Thursday, September 01, 2005

ベニテングタケ


Actually, it's almost Friday so I'm gonna make this the "Friday's English" post. ;-)

The scientific/Latin name is Amanita muscaria. It's a mushroom with a long history. Most people consider it a cute or beautiful mushroom. (In English, we call them all "mushrooms": "portabello mushroom", "shiitake mushroom", etc. Sometimes, they're called "toadstool" if they are poisonous.) Because it's a cute mushroom, it shows up in art and popular culture often. And in Docomo ads!

Its common name in English is "fly agaric" because you could put it in a bowl of milk and it would attract and kill flies.

But be careful! The Amanita muscaria is "poison". If you eat it, you might get sick. And you might have strange (or interesting/exciting) dreams and visions.

Yes, it's "poison", but it is eaten in Nagano prefecture here in Japan. I don't know completely, but apparently, it's cooked and then crumbled (broken into small pieces) and used as a "condiment" to add うまみ to soups and other foods. Also, it is apparently made into pickles in Nagano.

So which is it? Poison or psychedelic or うまみ?? Sometimes there is not just one easy answer. ;-)

3 Comments:

At 9/06/2005 1:26 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

hmmm... interesting.

I also learned a new word today: condiment.

I really enjoy all the links you have on there. Where and how do you find those?

 
At 9/07/2005 12:56 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

べにてんぐたけの話は、ホントに面白いですね!!

毒は、量によって、薬にもなるし、薬は量によって毒にもなる。polairty!

見た目は子供向け絵本のファンタジーのようでもあるし、悪いオトナが使えば、そっちのファンタジーの世界にに飛べちゃうし・・・。

スープ飲んでみたいなあー。いつか。

 
At 9/07/2005 4:13 PM, Blogger ryecatcher said...

Hackberry, glad you liked the links. I found them by doing all kinds of google searches on "ベニテングタケ 長野" and in English for "Amanita muscaria Nagano", etc. Because I'd read somewhere that in Nagano they eat it.

I think this article is where I first found out about it.

I guess I have "too much time on my hands"... :-o But that's changing this week, unfortunately.

 

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