WotD: enoki mushroom (Flammulina velutipes)

1. der (gemeine) Samtfußrübling
2. het (gewoon) fluweelpootje
3. la seta de aguja de oro
4. la flammulina
5. la collybie à pied velouté (LF)
8. płomiennica zimowa
9. 팽이버섯
10. 金針菇 jīnzhēngū
11. えのき茸 (えのきたけ)

Notes: Last night I was talking to monshu about the amusing way in which foreign culinary terms get clipped upon borrowing in such a way as to really narrow their meaning. Prosciutto di Parma, for instance, simply becomes prosciutto, which to us is a very specific type of Italian ham, but in Italian is simply "ham". Even odder is the case of caffè latte, whereby the word for "milk" comes to designate a preparation of coffee.

What I never realised at the time is that enoki falls into this category. It's not the name of a mushroom at all, but of a kind of tree--specifically, the species preferred by Flammulina velutipes, the Chinese hackberry (Celtis sinensis). The full Japanese name is enokitake or "hackberry mushroom". This is paralleled exactly by Korean phayngipeses which similarly contains phayng "hackberry". I also never realised how completely different wild enoki appear from cultivated. Not only are the cultivated varieties artificially white in the manner of German asparagus, but they're also extremely elongated and small-capped compared to their wild form.

I came across them today because I had a bit of a sniffle, so I decided to head to the local Korean place for some soup and they had something I'd never heard of before, 불고기뚝백이. The second part, ttukpayki, turns out to be the name of the unglazed earthenware pot the dish is cooked in. (The first part simply indexes the feature ingredient, bulgogi.) Also in the mix were chunks of onion (white and green), soft tofu, starch noodles, and even a couple whole kalakttek. Unlike the other soups, however, it lacked red pepper, making it a safe choice. That didn't seem to impair its sinus-clearing properties in the least.