Stir-fried Tree Ear Moss

Stir-fried Tree Ear Moss

　　Tree ear moss is a type of wild food, damp and often found growing on the ground near mountain bases or roadside verges. It carries the earthy scent and resembles a single black fungus in color and shape, but its nutritional value is more than ten times that of black fungus.

Mountains rise right before your eyes, and hiking up hills is a daily affair—this is the landscape of Pan’an. No matter where you go, all kinds of wild vegetables are readily available, but tree ear moss is particularly abundant in early spring. After a spring rain falls and the grass has just begun to turn green, the hillsides remain yellow, looking from afar like a warm-hued carpet. But step closer, and you’ll notice that this “carpet” is dotted with beautiful little “flowers.” In the fresh light after the rain, they resemble a faint ink wash painting. The local mountain farmers know that these “flowers” are actually tree ear moss.

Tree ear moss grows close to the ground, clinging to sand grains and dead grass. Carefully pick it up, remove any bits of grass, rinse it repeatedly with clean water, and then drain it before cooking. The most common way to prepare it is to stir-fry it with red chili peppers, garlic, and an appropriate amount of preserved mustard greens. The resulting dish is spicy and goes well with both rice and alcohol. For those who can’t handle spice, simply replace the red chili strips with lean cured pork strips for a richer aroma. Some hotels also use tree ear moss to make soup. The soup is brewed with pork bone stock and, besides the main ingredient of tree ear moss, includes mini mushrooms, boletus mushrooms, and other edible fungi, giving it a pale white color. Scoop up a piece of the thoroughly cooked tree ear moss—it feels refreshing and smooth in the mouth, with a deliciously fresh taste that carries a hint of sweetness. “An opera singer relies on their voice, a chef on their soup”—this saying highlights the importance of soup in culinary arts. Food critics have commented that this tree ear moss soup is “rich yet not cloying, fresh yet not bland,” making it a fine delicacy among soups. If you add beaten egg to the soup to make a custard-like dish, it becomes silky smooth—so much so that you’ll wish you could keep it in your throat just a little longer.