No Other Nation like Mushrooms as much as the Czechs
“All types of mushrooms are edible, though some are edible only once,” says a famous Czech joke. In fact, mushroom-picking is for the Czechs a kind of national sport. The ability to distinguish between edible and non-edible or even poisonous mushroom species is considered art and transmitted from generation to generation.
Mushroom-picking as a Combination of Exercise and Relaxation in the Nature
Mushroom-picking is a popular activity for whole families, especially in the summer time. It is a pleasant hobby helping you to recharge your batteries and get away from everyday problems while walking in the forest. It is also the quietness and silence of the forest that make us go into nature, with a basket of our favourite mushroom species being a well-deserved award.
Mushroom-picking dates a long time back. In poorer households, mushrooms were used to replace expensive meat; today they represent a welcome diversification of our diet. While our Eastern neighbours share this activity with us, many European countries take this mushroom passion of the Czechs as a kind of curiosity.
Mushrooms from the Forest Taste and Smell Better
Once you try a red cracking bolete, bitter bolete or a parasol grown in the forest, you will no more feel like eating farm-grown field mushroom, as it has no taste and smell compared to mushrooms found in the forest. The latter having a distinct taste and therefore are used mainly as spices. Mushrooms are delicious accompaniment to meat; they can be fried, grilled, roasted with cumin, scrambled with eggs or used in pasta recipes, matching especially for cream sauces.
Parasol or blusher caps are delicious when fried in breading. Moreover, they give excellent taste to your soups. Mushroom lovers might also feast on specialties such as gratin mushrooms, roasted mushroom pudding, stuffed mushroom caps or beef sirloin with chanterelles. Why don’t you try excellent beef with boletes in the Epocha Hotel in Janov nad Nisou?