can you identify all these? *

and here are our best guesses for the names of the ten exotic varieties (in order from the top left):

Yellow Oyster, Yellow Foot, Maitake, Black Trumpet, Hedgehog

Chanterelle, King Trumpet, Shiitake, ??1, ??2 *

pete prepares by snorting a few. we tried a small sample of each raw... *

...and then sauteed them individually in butter and olive oil. *

our comments (clockwise from left):

Yellow Oyster: taste and texture of squid!

Yellow Foot: mild, mucusy

Maitake: bitter, chalky, tastes like spinach or other leafy green

Black Trumpet: smell and taste of beef steak

Hedgehog: ??

Chanterelle: smells like pancake breakfast. mucusy texture. initial taste of bacon and pancakes.

King Trumpet: springy rubber texture. tastes like fatty turkey.

Shiitake: smells like rosemary. sluglike texture. tastes like sulfur.

??1: stringy texture. smoky/woody/charcoaly/BBQ

??2 (in center): smells like perfume/urinal. also smells very much like a pet store. tangy/sharp taste. uneatable; possibly undercooked. *

rounding out with the ordinaries:

white: light, like whitefish

brown: inundated with foreign flavor (mushrooms extracted from previous night's leftovers). fuller taste than white. *

try this at home. definitely worth the time and money! *