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Meeting with Mamarang |
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Post by Jerwin M. Lasin | Date: 7/22/2010 2:07:08 PM |
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What is so special about mamarang, Lipa's natural growing wild mushroom, that the heavens announce its appearance with claps of thunder and streaks of lightning through the billowing clouds of the monsoon season?
 For one, it tastes, well, heavenly! It is earthy and smooth as butter, melting in the mouth. Mamarang is a chef's perfect ingredient for any simple dish or gourmet, such as a sauce for linguini. As of late, mamarang has become a rarity following the incursion of what many consider "progress," it environs taken over by malls, golf courses and housing projects. Thus the mushrooms, available only in the late August and September, command a high price in the market today.
Realizing its importance in the kitchen, De La Salle Lipa has shown a shared interest in the protection and preservation of what the chef-instructor in this culinary arts program considers "a gift from God." This gift has a hint of "truffleness" in it, referring to the wild mushrooms of France and Italy.
Rural folk search and normally find clusters of mamarang in a wide, wind-swept greeneries at the fringes of the city where the air is cool and unpolluted. The mushrooms grow shortly after the monsoon downpour in the afternoon, followed by a thunderstorm. The areas they are found are kept secret. They are gingerly pulled from the soft grounds, carefully not to offend the 'spirit of the ponso" or they will not find a single growth of the prized fungi. The mamarang are sold stringed with coconut midrib in the early mornings immediately after they are gathered from the wild.
The Lipa Institute for Culinary Arts (LICA)introduced the black, velvetly fungi to its students during the jacketing ceremony. The chef made a single gourmet meal with these mushrooms where they were tasted in their fullness. LICA commits itself, as part of its vision-mission, to the propagation and responsible usage of things indigenous to Lipa.
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Meeting with Mamarang