Apparently there's a shortage of mycologists developing in this country, as the fungi experts are mostly nearing retirement age, and young scientists prefer more glamorous fields (I can't think why - after all, isn't a mycologist a fungi to be around?). Beatrix Potter was also an accomplished mycologist (that's one of her illustrations, of course), but her social standing - and sex - meant she could never take it up professionally. In her case, mycology's loss was art and literature's gain.
Okay, that was a really bad joke -- but one I didn't get at first. We pronounce "fungi" with a soft 'g' as in "spongy."
ReplyDeleteFunny, I was just thinking of mushrooms today... Of a great mushroom, shallot, & cream sauce I make with them and then toss with fresh linguine. It's one of Marcella Hazan's incredible recipes. Forget all these new toque-wearers running around naked (Jamie) and screaming at people in the kitchen (that other idiot on TV). Hazan is the real deal: Quietly brilliant, always edible.
Poor Beatrix, there's not mushroom in this world for female mycologists.
ReplyDeleteFirst the country goes nearly bankrupt and to cap it all now there's a shortage of mycologists!. Maybe we could get some more in from France where they know about these things. As for Beatrix, let's bear in mind that she was a very morel girl all the same.
ReplyDeleteDitto, Susan, I have MH's The Classic Italian Cookbook. I particularly like the recipe for "fagioli su una fetta di tostato orgoglio della madre".
Hoho got it Mark - and I'm sure there'll be a mycology revival soon. I reckon in a few years the profession will be mushrooming...
ReplyDeleteHaven't you lot got a gnome to go to,
ReplyDeleteI refuse to be part of this terror.
ReplyDeleteJust a truffle, but I had no idea until I zoned-in on Wiki that fungi are more closely related to animals than to plants; file under 'learn-a-fact-a-day'. Hard to believe when you look at our moth-eaten moggie.
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