What is she talking about now?! You know, fungi, fungus, mold, mushrooms! We eat the stuff. They pop up after a lovely rain, or a torrential downpour (provided the air temperature is welcoming). They appear so full grown and so suddenly, they almost say "Boop!" (in fact, they do say it. I've heard them, but I can't prove it so I won't insist). There are mushroom hunters out there. They snoop around the woods like wild boars on the trail of truffles (which are like mushrooms except they're underground and are more rare and taste more intense and are a helluva lot more expensive -- come to think of it, a different animal altogether).

In Northern Italy, spring, late summer and early autumn bring the wild Porcini booping up from the ground. There are very serious hunters of this delicacy, an art passed down from generation to generation. All kinds of tricks are used to bring luck in finding some -- like wearing your shirt inside out.

The Porcini, otherwise known as Boletus edulis, or in France, cepe, can be found right here in North America in the late spring, we call it King Bolete. (I love the names of wild mushrooms: Turkey Tail, Variegated Mop, Dead Man's Fingers, Fuzzy Foot, Elegant Stinkhorn.) I suspect there is a difference in taste between the European Porcini/Cepe and the American King Bolete. The Italians dry hordes of them so in the winter they'll still be available. We don't. And in season it's very rare to find them sold in our markets. Not in theirs.

Wild mushroom hunting is not easy. Let's say you think you see a wild King Bolete...well, did you know this looks an awful lot like the Red-mouth Bolete which is poisonous? Ah-ha, there's the rub. You have to be good at this stuff to survive -- or at least to avoid a hallucination, or assure one. For that, try the hallucinogen Bog Conocybe, but be careful, this also looks a lot like the Deadly Conocybe which is not only poisonous, but listed as "deadly"! Likewise, you may see a Chanterelle (edible with caution), but maybe it's a Jack O'Lantern (definitely poisonous). Is that a Ground Pholiota (edible) or a Scaly Fiber Head (poisonous)? Smooth Volvariella (edible with caution) or Poison Pie (you guessed it)? Ahhh! It's nerve wracking, and dangerous!