Chinabites

Posted: Jun. 10, 2009

“Are you feeling nauseated while you’re eating this?”, my roommate asked solicitously. “I bet it feels like you’re eating someone’s saliva!”, she continued. I wasn’t going to be deterred though, because this treat that she had been preparing for a day and a half in the kitchen of my new apartment was way too weird to pass up, my curiosity was piqued.

What sat quivering in the bowl in my hand was a clear lukewarm soup with a mound of translucent fungus, garnished with a couple of gouji berries. This particular fungus is called 银耳, snow fungus, or silver ear fungus.

She had soaked this gelatinous mound of goodness for about a day in the kitchen before cooking it slowly on low heat for half a day in a crock pot. Afterward she added a little sugar to the clear broth, but the end result wasn’t really sweet at all.

I ate the entire bowl, apparently this silver ear fungus enjoys a reputation of being good for one’s skin. I don’t notice anything different about my (admittedly almost flawless) skin at all several days after eating it. Maybe I need to eat more?