I love Mexican food, but there are some dishes that I will not even try. Do not try to tempt me with "chapulines" (grasshoppers), "escamoles" (ant eggs), "pancita" (cow stomach), "sopa de sesos" (cow brain soup) or, perhaps most dreadful of all, "taco de ojo" (tacos made with the eyes of a cow)! Sorry, but I don't do insects or organs.
There is, however, one Mexican dish, which many people north of the border would view with disgust, which I do not hesitate to eat... "huitlacoches". It is a fungus that grows on ears of corn that is called "corn smut" up here. Farmers in the U.S. consider it a blight, but in Mexico it is considered a delicacy. I suppose that the English name makes it unappetizing to "gringos", but really, it is nothing more than a kind of mushroom. I have had it several times, and, although I wouldn't say that it is my favorite dish, I'm not going to turn my nose up at it either.
I'm bringing this up because this week a friend of Alejandro's family brought over several large ears of corn covered with "huiltlacoches". Alejandro forgot to take a picture of the ears, but here is a photo of the fungus after he scraped it off the corn.
He sautéed the "huitlacoche" with onions and the kernels of corn. The fungus turns black when fried, and even he admits it looks a bit like mud.
But it makes a tasty filling for tacos or "quesadillas"!
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