Priced at around $6,000 per kilogram, the Alba White Truffle is one of the most expensive produce money can buy. Just last year, a Hong Kong bidder broke records at the Italian Alba White Truffle World charity auction by forking out €120,000 (S$188,342) for a 1.005kg specimen. Many other truffle aficionados make annual pilgrimages to Italy, attending hunts and fairs, and shelling out thousands to get their hands on it on a fresh batch. But guess what: white truffle grows naturally in Chiang Mai.
In 2017, researchers from Chiang Mai University unearthed a knobbly lump in a national park surrounding Mount Suthep in northwestern Thailand and discovered that it was the tuber magnatum—the very same species of fungi as Italy’s much sought-after white truffle. While the white truffle has yet to be commercially grown or harvested in Thailand, the discovery goes to show that—while often perceived as a tropical region with little premium produce to offer—Southeast Asia is full of agricultural (and aquacultural) surprises.
Matsutake mushroom in Laos
The urban legend goes like this: a Japanese soldier stayed on in Laos after the end of World War II, returning home only decades later. His friends were all shocked: though they were all advancing in years, he was as sprightly as a young man. His secret, apparently, was a diet that comprised of generous quantities of an abundant local mushroom—called het wai in the local language, and known as matsutake everywhere else in the world.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May - June 2020 من WINE&DINE.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
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هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة May - June 2020 من WINE&DINE.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
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