Hungry in Berlin

(Above: “Steinpilze,” aka porcini mushrooms; thanks treegrow)

(This post was generously contributed by Rebecca F. Miller.)

I’ve been looking for any excuse to be outside for the last few weeks, and my favorite places have always been where there are few people and lots of natural landscape. As November waxes, there are precious few days to enjoy one of Germany’s most popular fall pastimes: mushroom hunting. While it’s easy to head to market to find fresh-picked ’shrooms trucked in from Brandenburg, if you’re craving a daytrip to the outdoors – as I and my fellow hunters were a few weekends ago – the woods outside of Berlin are rife with culinary fungus.

I had an absolute aversion to mushrooms as a kid, but I remember my dad disappearing into the woods and emerging hours later with handfuls of enormous, wrinkled morels. My mom dipped them in butter, rolled them in bread crumbs and seasoning, and fried them. My adult palate craves them and, luckily, a bit of foraging around Berlin can take you far.

(Left: “Pfifferling,” aka chanterelle”; thanks muckster) Restaurant menus get excited about Pfifferling-Zeit at this time of the year – Pfifferling-Zeit (“chanterelle time”) having been preceded in the German culinary calendar by Erdbeer-Zeit (“strawberry time”) and Spargel-Zeit (“asparagus time”). This little gem of a mushroom has a strong rich flavor that complements Germany’s meat and potatoes fare in sauces and soups. It’s also been spotted in some German-international fusion dishes, notably at Frau Mittenmang, just down from where I live on Rodenbergstrasse, where they also brew their own beer.

The bad news is that the Pfifferling has become so popular that it’s difficult to find and is even protected in some states, Brandenburg being one of them. Good news is that there are over 1,500 other varieties for you to look for. On our trip out, the bulk of our kilo or so of mushrooms were from the Dickröhrling family, especially the Ziegenlippe (Boletus subtomentosus). These have a broad, brown cap that is a bit hard to spot, but whenever you find one, there are usually a few more right nearby. They have spongy yellow gills on the underside of the cap. The cream of the German mushroom crop is the Steinpilz (which most of us know as the porcini mushrooms) and the Marone (Bay bolete, in English). Belonging to the same genus as the Ziegenlippe, these grow in coniferous forests and are also protected, so only take what you will use. Recipes for Steinpilze range from typical pasta sauces and soups to risotto, ravioli and as a “carpaccio” with a twist of lime.

(Right: “Ziegenlippe mushroom;” thanks threedots)The forest we went to, northwest of Berlin, had virtually no underbrush except for the decomposing leaves and needles of oak, birch and spruce trees, making it easy to spot the brown caps. Finding a location is quicker if you have a car, but bikers can just as easily take the S-Bahn to stations in the B and C networks, such as Bernau, Oranienburg, Grunewald and Ludwigsfelde.

The Free University’s Botanical Garden and Museum has aninfo page(1) devoted to mushroom hunting, as well as a resident expert, Dr. Ewald Gerhardt. He recommends using a basket for collecting and lightly cleaning the mushrooms before putting them in with the others. Also helpful is to find a friend who’s been out before and knows for sure which mushrooms are edible, as these can easily be confused with those that are poisonous. If you find you’d like a bit more tutoring on the subject, Dr. Gerhardt is available for Pilzberatung (“mushroom advice”) in German or English.

Happy hunting!

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.