ottawa foodies

Im doing a wild mushroom tasting menu, july 21st. 30 seats only. Check out the menu here!
www.tulipsandmaple.com
Hope to see some of you there! The event will be held out here at Tulips And Maple @1980 merivale road.

Wow. Looks menu looks really cool and creative.

I remember when I lived in France, they used to make little meringue mushrooms and use them to decorate buche de noel- as I was reading through the menu, I wondered what type of mushroom dessert you would make.

Another catering business has been doing the same for a couple of months now, A Culinary Conspiracy: www.culinaryconspiracy.ca

They've got one tonight and another in late August at Mariposa Farms.

I know for a fact that Tulips and Maple will have a rare exotic and gourmet mushroom feast unequalled anywhere else in Ottawa.

way to derail this thread chimi, you jerk haha

your menu looks awesome! i'd love to go but my SO isn't keen on the mush.

Monty - lol, yeah I'm a jerk. Seriously though, my comment wasn't intended to draw attention AWAY from DB's mushroom night, quite the contrary, just being community minded and thought those that enjoy wild mushroom menus might enjoy the Culinary Conspiracy one as well. I think that the T&M menu speaks for itself - looks amazing, and an event that should not be missed for those that love fungus! (the events are also being held on separate nights as well, so not really competition, per se)

Chimi- Quit weezing the juice man! lol

I love all things mushroom! I would of loved to of made it out to Culinary Conspiracy's mushroom ball but due to working my pants off, it was not a possibility! I would like to go to the one there having at Mariposa in the fall though if I can swing it!

ATTN: Fungifiles Boletivores
This menu is not about competition, its about love for the fungus. Ive been asked to do this a number of times and this is what it finally evolved into. Hope we get some rain though, its corn flake like conditions out there right now!

DB - you asked, it delivered, rain has come! I'll be out over the next few days before I take off for vacation (hopefully score some oysters, saw meadow mushrooms last week which I thought was really weird).

As a side note - I will almost undoubtedly be at the Mariposa event for CC. Robert Jutras & his staff are awesome - much love for the mushroom in that shop. Might be making it out to the T&M mush night if I'm in the country.

just so everyone knows the mushroom ball at mariposa was postponed from august to october....so get in touch with cc if your interested in going....i hear its going to be 10 courses of shrooms.....yummy....

Someone told me this event was sold out?
I was at the last dinner, good times.....
I hope they find some more mushrooms for there fall menu as I hardly seen any during my meal!
Pig Lover> let us know if there is still availability.

I'd be interested in learning how to identify the edible mushrooms growing the woods behind my house. I live across the river from Gatineau Park, so whatever is growing in the Park is probably growing near me as well.

Same here
I'd like to learn also. Hunting season is upon us
and while I'm walking around deer scouting and trying for
upland game. I walk by all kinds of fungus in our
precious hunting grounds. It's be nice to know the edibles.

Frank,

A friend of mine looks for mushrooms all the time. He says there are a couple of species that don't have any poisonous variants that are common around this time of the year in this area: chanterelles and boletes. All we need is a sunny day after a couple of days of rain and they will sprout (I'll have to give him a call when that happens). Woods with mixed types of trees, especially if there are birch trees, are good places to find them.

Chanterelles . . .

Boletes . . .

francis just so you know....there are many varieties of boletes and some of them will definately make you sick...and there are a few that look very similar to chantrelles including the deadly! jack o laterns...cant say enough dont pick them unless your sure....

I'll definitely wait until I can go with my friend. He said the boletes are sometimes bitter but not deadly.

I ordered some mushroom identification books too. A mushroom expert once told me, even if you're pretty sure about identification of a new mushroom, you should just eat a little and see if it makes you sick or not first . . . I think that's good advice, especially for an impulsive person like myself. :-)

True, chanterelles can be misidentified as jack'o'lanterns. Boletes are almost all edible, some will upset your stomach but that's about it. The ones that upset your stomach will taste bitter, and will likely stain blue when the flesh is cut into.

Francis - I might hold back on the theory of tasting a small amount - a small amount of amanita virosa (destroying angel) will hospitalize you, causing kidney & liver damage and potentially death. This mushroom is commonly confused with the masked tricholoma (or other variants of the tricholoma family) or agaricus campestris (field mushroom) in it's early stages of growth. It's always best to use a manual, take spore prints and lots of photos if you're not 100% sure.

In Ottawa I've been able to find a bounty of mushrooms, even more just outside of town. Morels, various boletes, chanterelles, hedgehogs, field mushrooms, various lactarius, oysters, assorted small unidentifiable mushrooms. Most notable were the morels and porcini (boletus edulis) - very tasty, and bountiful when in season.

DB - how'd your dinner go anyway? I was out of town. I also ended up missing the CC mushroom dinner, even though it was cancelled :( I hear they will do it again in October potentially. I'd be interested in more dinners like this, or maybe a pirate dinner party with a mushroom theme.

Chimichimi - "Aye mate, a 'pirate' dinner" sounds swashbuckling good!
;-) *wink*