A well known German Chef, in Valencia, who felt absolutely awful over the horrendous horror. The Government closed the restaurant until they could do testings for toxicity etcetra, and collaborate with the Forensics on this specific case.
I have not followed what has happened to date, however, it took place approx during the late spring to early summer of 2019.
I tried to read more on RiFF, I cannot find more recent news on the event, except the incident in February this year. Since the restaurant is reopened now, I guess the authority classified the event as accident.
Naf,
I shall ask some Chef Friends … I do not go to Valencia too too often.
Yes, these things happen world wide …
Very unfortunate incident …
sigh
It’s these folks who don’t understand what they have that is ruining it for us who would gladly forage in the city! Yes, you have to bear with the smell, but this stuff sells for like $10/lb in the local Chinese markets, and even more online. If my mom knew these were there, she’d be there cleaning up the place for free.
There’s a surprising amount of food to forage in southern AZ, which is in the Sonoran Desert. A lot of the parks have pecan trees, most of the cactus that fruit have wonderful-tasting fruits, there are lots and lots of olive trees, the occasional mulberry (although sadly, most are male and produce only pollen), lots of citrus, including Seville oranges, which are sour but really really good for marinades and drinks, and they smell better than any other oranges I’ve ever smelled. We also have a lot of fig and olive trees, and there’s a pineapple guava in my back yard that’s full of fruit right now. I went out picking tunas (opuntia fruit) a while back, and now have a half-gallon of the most brilliant, intense magenta juice you’ve ever seen. I may make wine with it.
A few years later on this foraging thread…I caught an episode of Wild Harvest (with Les Stroud) the other day and Chef Paul made an incredible looking juniper pearl ‘caviar’ made with agar agar. They made gin, too. Does anyone out there forage OUTSIDE of your urban area and what do you collect? Have you had experience making agar agar ‘caviar’ of any kind?
I’ve lots of great memories of urban foraging!
When I lived in the LA area, for many years I’d go to the Orcutt Ranch in the west San Fernando Valley to pick white grapefruit and Valencia oranges. The ranch is run by the LA Parks & Recreation department and for one weekend a year you could pick both for a few dollars per bag or box. One year I picked 350 grapefruit! Then the next day I’d squeeze all the juice and freeze it in 1/2 gallon containers. It was wonderful. I stopped doing that when I got diabetes and not being able to drink 100% juice is the #1 thing I miss about before I was diabetic.
When I lived in Portland. Oregon I would walk various trails and pick loads of wild blackberries. The brambles are a huge invasive plant (I believe they are mostly non-native Himalayan blackberries) and picking is encouraged.
When I lived in Tokushima on the island of Shikoku, I’d pick loquats and I’ve never been able to find loquats as delicious as those in stores (and loquats tend to be very expensive in Japan).
Now I live in Shizuoka City and the only fruit I’ve been able to forage are a type of citrus called “amanatsu”, a tart orange-like citrus fruit. I don’t pick them from the trees I see because those trees are on someone’s private property, but I’ll pick up those I find on the ground.
Yes, I’ve made it many times via the dripping into chilled oil method.
Fruit juice needs about 1 tsp of agar powder per cup of liquid to set into pearls.
Did you intentionally look around after that? Every big morel sore I’ve had started with that one just pointing me the way to many lbs. worth. I find that with mushroom hunting in general. If you see one. Just stop, relax and look around, slowly. Sometimes they come out of the woodwork. Kinda magical when that happens. Found a mess of white oysters (the mushroom) like that two weeks ago. They have such nice anise flavor.
I’m a mushroom hunter and find that almost anywhere I go, I can find a university with a knowledgeable mycologist. Usually, they’re more than just knowledgeable, they’re nuts like me. Chicken of the woods, is pretty easy to ID once you get your forest legs for mushrooms. It when we get into clitocibes and russulas that I get a tad scared. Many times, there’ll be an amanita virosa among them that might escape detection. This has happened to me more than once. ID every single one if you plan to eat them! hate for nice folks to pay with their life, or, at best, need a liver transplant. ID every single one.
