Enokitake (Japanese: えのき茸, Chinese: 金针菇, Pinyin: jīnzhēngū; Korean: 팽이버섯 Revised Romanization: pengi beoseot) are long, thin white or brown mushrooms used in Asian cuisines, particularly those of Japan, Korea, China, and Vietnam. These mushrooms, known as Flammulina velutipes or Flammulina populicola to biologists, are also called golden needle mushroom, winter mushrooms, velvet foot, or velvet stem.

The mushroom is available fresh or canned, the fresh mushroom being preferable. Cut off the root system (approximately 4 cm) and wash briefly before use. They are traditionally used for soups, but can also be used for salads and other dishes. They have a fruity flavor and a crisp texture. The mushroom can be refrigerated for about one week.

Some Interesting Facts About Mushrooms:

1. Mushrooms are fungi. Fungi are as uniquely different from plants as plants are from animals.

2. Fungi recycle plants after they die and transform them into rich soil. If not for mushrooms and fungi, the Earth would be buried in several feet of debris and life on the planet would soon disappear.

3. There were no fossils of fungi dating back more than 10,000 years until a scientist recently found a mushroom encased in tree resin (sap) that is many millions of years old! This mushroom was placed into a new genus, the genus Coprinites.

4. Some of the oldest living mushroom colonies are fairy rings growing around the famous Stonehenge ruins in England. The rings are so large that they can best be seen from airplanes or satellites.

5. Some mushrooms produce compounds that fight cancer! This was discovered when scientists in Japan found that a community had unusually low cancer rates. The scientists discovered that the members of the community grew and ate many Enokitake mushrooms!

6. Under the right conditions, some mushrooms’ spores can sit dormant for decades or even a century, and still grow!

7. Mushrooms are useful not only as food and medicine; some are also being used in bioremediation, to absorb and digest dangerous substances like oil, pesticides and industrial waste, in places where they threaten the environment.

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