Mushroom Success!!
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Today (7/29/11) we went on a big hike near Mijanes up through the forests to 3 mountain lakes. Along the way we passed grazing herds of big white cows and grazing horses (resembling clydsdales). It was a beautifully sunny day and we had a wonderful outing. On the way back down to the parking area, Joe said out loud….If I were a Cepe (mushroom) I’d be here…and then darted left into the woods. And lo and behold he found one! And then another, and another, and before you know it (okay, about an hour later) we had a bag of 5 great big Cepe mushrooms. To confirm that these were indeed the ‘prized’ cepe mushrooms and not a deadly impostor, we stopped into the Pharmacy in Axat. The ladies eyes got really big when I held up the bag and they exclaimed ‘Manifique! Oui, tres bon a manger!’ Big smiles and looks of how impressed they were with the size and quality confirmed that we’d done well! We then took them into the butcher shop to ask what meat pairing he would recommend to go with our cepes…seeing the bag he also beamed and exclaimed how big they were and how well we’d done finding these prized gems. He then recommended a lovely cut of pork to go with them for dinner…and also encouraged us to buy the last of his special paella for lunch tomorrow. We of course obliged and thanked him for his assistance. Going back to the car to drive up to the house, the usual group of local men congregated around a particular bench this time of evening…every evening…were solving the troubles of the universe when they spotted our bag of cepes. Exclamations were exchanged, hand shakes of congratulations given to Joe, kisses to me, and wishes for a good dinner as we headed home very glad that we’d FINALLY got it right with the mushroom hunt 🙂
Bon Appetit!