Truffles?

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Has anyone ever eaten one???? Do tell, if you have!!!!

Not the chocolate kind, the mushroom. The ones that dogs and pigs are trained to sniff out...even if they are buried quite deeply.

I'd like to try them and see what all the hoopla is about, but I can't imagine paying what they cost!!! I guess there are all sorts of different kinds, but the white ones are superior to the black ones.

A friend residing in Italy wrote this,

"The smell is indescribable. I've never smelled or tasted anything like truffles. They are nothing like mushrooms, which is what most people think. The dogs smell these even if they are 30" under the ground. A good truffle dog is priceless. Marcello's dog is a failed truffle dog. They are considered worthless. There's no special breed, just a talent. And they don't eat the truffles, but are given a treat when they find one. The tool the man uses is like a walking stick with a sharp triangle at the end. I went driving through Pietralunga, up in the mountains behind me, one Sunday last year. The entire area was filled with dogs and the men who were following them in barn jackets and wellington boots. I much prefer this kind of hunting to the loud kind. Truffles are volatile and are packed in rice and sealed in glass and then airshipped. There was one at the show last year that was worth $600,000. It was shown behind bulletproof glass and had been sold to some famous US restaurant. The biggest last year was found by a monk, and it was said that it would keep his monastery for two years for the price it commanded. Because of all the rain, this will be a big year for them."

A $600,000 mushroom!!! Unless they are an elixer of the gods, I can't imagine them being worth the cost!!! Amazing!

Here's a truffle site...they don't LOOK appetizing.....?!

http://www.trufflemarket.com/

-- Patty (SycamoreHollow@aol.com), October 20, 2002


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