Get High, Hard or Sated From These Chinese Mushrooms

During the summertime monsoon season, thousands of mushroom foragers head to China’s Yunnan Province for the wide variety of edible mushrooms found in its rich soils. The traditional forage brings thousands to the region (and billions of dollars). But foragers, take note: these mushies can be hallucinatory, bioluminescent, poisonous, or work like Viagra.

While Western chefs once considered European mushrooms the best, Yunnan mushrooms are poised to take that crown, appearing in many Michelin-starred restaurants and being praised for their health benefits. Yunnan is abundant in edible mushroom species, but it’s downright affluent in poisonous and hallucinogenic varieties, making it crucial for foragers to be cautious.

This Appetizer Might Get You High
The most revered and feared is Jian Shou Qing. Apparently if you cook the mushrooms hot enough, the heat will remove any hallucinatory effects, leaving one of the most delicious mushroom dishes. However, it’s not an exact science and even a well-cooked dish could leave you tripping. Many locals who’ve gotten “accidentally” high off Jian Shou Qing report seeing little people dancing around. These hallucinated people are known as xiao ren ren and said to be delightful.

Jian Shou Qing sound fun. And clearly, delicious.

Go All Night
In the province’s northwest mountains, foragers can find a kind of cordyceps worth nearly 3x its weight in gold. As many of our readers probably know already, cordyceps has powerful health benefits, including increased virility, and this species (the alpine caterpillar fungus) is one of the most potent. So make sure to fill your basket with some of those babies.

Take A Guide
Mushroom poisonings, ranging from mild inconveniences to fatalities, are common during the rainy season in Yunnan. Government warnings, posters, and ads aim to minimize these risks, but it’s best to know which mushrooms to avoid. I’d take a guide. This is definitely not something I’d trust to AI yet either.

Stay Lit
A few species of mushrooms in Yunnan actually produce bioluminescence. However, if you’ve already eaten a handful of magic mushrooms, you might not notice.