What food is this?

February 3, 2006 12:13 PM

Help my identify what food this is a picture of. (Picture inside.)

posted by pealco to Food & Drink (22 answers total)

Response by poster: Help me identify, me!
posted by pealco at 12:14 PM on February 3, 2006

it's a kind of mushroom but I don't remember the name. They're sold packaged, at fancy food stores, and are common in Chinese cuisine.
posted by anadem at 12:21 PM on February 3, 2006

That's a mushroom? Jeepers, I thought it was a particularly foul-looking kind of sushi. Where'd you find this picture, i.e., whose flickr stream? Any context at all?
posted by Gator at 12:43 PM on February 3, 2006

Response by poster: The flickr stream doesn't provide any context.
posted by pealco at 12:46 PM on February 3, 2006

Response by poster: For scale, the white thing under it is a grain of rice.
posted by pealco at 12:49 PM on February 3, 2006

Damn, I would have thought it was octopus.
posted by madman at 12:49 PM on February 3, 2006

Er, because it looks like the tentacles of some cephalopod.

Another thing I've seen that looks similar is mock "chicken", a Chinese Buddhist speciality. The "skin" part is something like that.
posted by madman at 12:55 PM on February 3, 2006

It looks like a mushed-up bit of baby corn to me. Possibly pickled, to account for the color. Hard to tell, though.
posted by frykitty at 12:57 PM on February 3, 2006

This is what I mean.
posted by madman at 12:59 PM on February 3, 2006

Its a Chinese mushroom that is identified with a particular mountain called Chang Bai Shan, near North Korea.

This area has many unique species. It is ecologically pristine, and there is a lake on top of the mountain called Sky Pond the supposedly has a monster living in it.
posted by StickyCarpet at 1:09 PM on February 3, 2006

could be a roe that hasn't been seperated into individual eggs.
posted by MonkeySaltedNuts at 1:13 PM on February 3, 2006

Interesting if it is a mushroom, definitely looks like some of the egg sacs I pulled out of things when I was a bio major
posted by Good Brain at 1:15 PM on February 3, 2006

It looks to me like the inside of an artichoke heart, actually.
posted by exceptinsects at 1:32 PM on February 3, 2006

I assume you're trying to win this contest on gtmcknight.com?
posted by themadjuggler at 2:22 PM on February 3, 2006

Hah. No wonder he didn't want to say where the picture came from.

And apparently it's not a mushroom, according to the dude.
posted by Gator at 2:24 PM on February 3, 2006

OK, who the heck is Pedro on that contest site? He's copied my answer. :p

(I'm pretty sure one of my answers is right.)
posted by madman at 2:48 PM on February 3, 2006

I believe it is a kind of mushroom, a hedgehog. I saw something very similar today at Toronto's St Lawrence Market.
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 9:16 PM on February 3, 2006

there is no chicken, corn, or mushrooms present on that plate

Well, that could be declared technically wrong because the word "corn" refers to any material packed like that, such as "corned beef" that is covered with granuals of rock salt, or "corn rows."

Corn the vegatable is only one kind of corn, of which this mystery item is another.
posted by StickyCarpet at 10:15 PM on February 3, 2006

Response by poster: Busted!
posted by pealco at 11:04 AM on February 4, 2006

Well, the bloke says it's an artichoke.
posted by madman at 6:20 AM on February 7, 2006

exceptinsects for the win!
posted by Gator at 7:28 AM on February 7, 2006

Dang, I should have checked back. Go me!
Oh well, I don't really want an invite to indietorrent.com, whatever that is.
posted by exceptinsects at 11:33 PM on February 16, 2006