Phu Quoc melaleuca mushroom – A rare and nutritious specialty

Every time the rainy season comes, Phu Quoc people excitedly go to the forest to collect purple mushrooms that only appear in the rainy season – Phu Quoc melaleuca mushrooms. If anyone has had the opportunity to taste this mushroom, they will definitely want to come back here again because of the special bitter taste of the dish made from melaleuca mushrooms. Now, let’s learn about this interesting mushroom.

Melaleuca mushrooms appear in any season of the year

Phu Quoc Melaleuca Mushroom

Around March or April of the lunar calendar every year, when the first rains begin to fall on Phu Quoc, in the area under the carpet of rotten leaves, especially Melaleuca leaves, beautiful purple mushroom buds will appear. signals a bumper Melaleuca mushroom season is coming for Phu Quoc people.

The purple color of large mushrooms is likened to the color of a plum, a gentle pinkish purple. The growth cycle is very short, only 1 month, so this is a rustic food that not everyone will have the opportunity to enjoy. The price of this mushroom on the market ranges from 150-200k/kg and is often very popular because both tourists and locals love dishes made from melaleuca mushrooms. This is a type of mushroom that grows naturally, so if you want to collect it, local people have to go deep into the Melaleuca forest from early morning.

In what areas do Melaleuca mushrooms grow?

Mushrooms grow in damp places

Melaleuca mushrooms are a Phu Quoc specialty that often grow in melaleuca forests or yellow cotton melaleuca forests, humid lands with a layer of leaves that is not too thick, fallen melaleuca leaves almost cover the ground, just hold a branch and gently scratch the leaf layer. will detect mushroom buds hiding below. You will be amazed by the mushroom buds just rising from the ground and the thin layer of leaves looking so lovely. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to come across an entire field full of mushrooms because mushrooms tend to grow close together. Hunting for melaleuca mushrooms, when discovering a mushroom, you have to sit down and use a hook to rake the leaves around, hook in the tree stumps, because mushrooms often grow close together, sometimes the whole patch of ground is full of mushrooms, mushrooms grow in clusters, mushrooms grow together. For each tree, there are blooming mushrooms and bud mushrooms.

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1 small corner of Melaleuca Mushroom

Use value of Melaleuca mushrooms

After picking the mushrooms, they should go through an elaborate cleaning step: scrape the dirty layer around the mushroom body, cut off the legs, then wash them thoroughly and boil them in salt water. Once done, cook and eat immediately or store in the refrigerator for a week. If you want to keep it for a long time, you can freeze it. There are seasons when there are so many mushrooms that you can’t eat them all, so people often freeze them to eat for a year. However, after freezing, it will be less crispy and sweet compared to freshly plucked mushrooms.

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Melaleuca mushrooms are simple to handle and prepare

First of all, it is necessary to confirm that, although Melaleuca mushrooms have a bitter taste, this is a completely safe mushroom and is not harmful. On the contrary, it also has extremely good health effects. Like other mushrooms, Melaleuca mushrooms are rich in fiber and vitamins and minerals that are extremely good for health. According to Oriental medicine research, eating melaleuca mushrooms is good for people with fatigue, headaches, flu, etc. In addition, the cajeput oil in mushrooms also nourishes internal organs, helps purify the body, clears heat and detoxifies, and helps detoxify the body alcohol,…

Melaleuca Mushroom Soup of Phu Quoc people

Melaleuca mushroom nutrition brings to Phu Quoc people

Phu Quoc melaleuca mushroom soup can be cooked with chicken, cooked with minced meat or seafood, beaten with a little fatty and fragrant egg, spooned into a bowl, add cilantro and a little ground pepper, served with rice or eaten alone as a soup. The dish not only clears heat and detoxifies, but also has a very characteristic bitter taste. Whoever eats Melaleuca mushroom soup should not drink the water immediately, because the bitter taste will become even stronger. Don’t worry about whether this bitter taste is due to poisoning when eating mushrooms or not because this is a special feature of Melaleuca mushrooms when processing and enjoying. Note that when eating melaleuca mushroom soup after preparing it, you must not reheat it, otherwise it will not be good to eat for health.

Melaleuca mushrooms have high nutritional value

Each mushroom is cherished and treasured by Phu Quoc people because its life cycle is too short, with little rain it is difficult to grow, too much rain makes it difficult to survive, so it can only be harvested during the short Phu Quoc melaleuca mushroom season. So if you have the opportunity to enjoy delicious Melaleuca mushroom soup, you are truly lucky.

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