Mushrooms,picking ,cooking ,eating ,enjoying

   This is mushroom season here in Thailand and Kanchanaburi is famous for all kinds of mushrooms that grow in the forest and especially  the foothills of the small mountain range  in the Sai Yok area, there are mushrooms a plenty, one of the favorite and most sought after, and a great income for the families that live here is the termite mushroom or (hed khone ), also they are a favorite in Tum Yum soup of all kinds , my favorite is hed khone mushrooms and chicken  soup with coconut milk, "yum yum".

    One of the most famous and expensive mushrooms found around here are called the hed khone , and folks come from all over the country to buy them at the roadside stands along the highway between Sai Yok and Kanchanaburi,  and there are whole sellers that come from Bangkok to bargain with the roadside stands in order to take them back and sell to the high  priced restaurants, a meal that includes hed khone mushrooms (fresh) can cost as much as 350  baht or more . . They can cost upwards to 400 baht per kilo at the roadside stands. The season for them is Sept. till Jan. and families that sell them every year, will stay in the woods for days, guarding their secret places, they seem to grow in the same places at the same times every year.
    At the foot of the mountain behind our house and in the forest leading up to it ,there lots of hed khone mushrooms grow and people from our village will come every morning at 5 or 6 am and start looking for them especially after a good rain and a sunny day. It's first come first served at our Mt. and the early bird gets the worm (mushrooms).
Today was a lucky day for us , we had a man come and cut our grass for us today and  I was out back looking, to see if he had done a good job when , I happened to look over about 50 ft. from our back deck and saw what I thought was mushrooms ,I called Ciejay to come look , and sure enough they were hed Khone mushrooms. we were able to pick about 2 kilo. What a great fine and in our own backyard , It don't get any better than that.
   Ciejay just finished cleaning them and tonight we are going to saute them with onions and garlic and  serve them with grilled, pork tenderloin and jasmine rice. and we will still have enough left to make a great  mushroom and chicken with coconut milk for a great Tum Yum soup.
    This is just another example of the wonderful variety of food that is available here in the LOS , that is there just for the small effort of getting out and looking . Do you like fresh mushrooms?, and do you ever go to look for them in the forest near your home?Ciejay and me we love mushrooms any time we can get them , most of the time we , like most people have to buy from the roadside stands and every once in a while , if a neighbor finds more than they can use  they will share them with their neighbors, and we're very happy when this includes us . Just another reason why we're "Retired in Thailand and Loving It".