凉拌金针菇 Golden Straw Mushrooms with Sesame Oil

Pinyin: Liáng Bàn Jīn Zhēn Gū

This one's good, but you've gotta know I'm a fan of mushrooms (even if they aren't magic).

I've only ever had this dish at one restaurant and I'm sure it's widely available. It's basically these long white stringy kind of mushrooms called Jin Zhen Gu (金针菇) with diced scallions and mixed cooked in sesame oil. The few times I've had it, it's always been served warm, not hot yet not cold. I'm not sure how they cook it, once in the morning and then left out all day or cooked on demand and then cooled before served or some other method.

I looked up the mushrooms on Google or Wikipedia and turns out they have several English names, but looks like the most common is Golden Straw Mushrooms. They may look like straw but are more white than golden. One thing they didn't mention on Wikipedia is that these things are stringy and a little chewy, more than once I've tried to eat them too fast and nearly choked on them. It seems to me the most popular place to find these mushrooms is either in hot pot or soup, actual food dishes seem to be rather rare.