When I moved to Norway, some of my new friends invited me for a hike in the forest. I was admiring the mountain views, enjoying the fresh scent of pine trees and listening to chirping birds, when one of my friends asked me to look down. There were bright splashes of red and yellow painted across the forest floor. I thought, The autumn leaves can't have fallen yet! It's only July! With a closer look, I saw that the leaves were not leaves at all -- they were colorful mushrooms of all shapes and sizes! I learned the name of one of the mushrooms that many people love to eat: chanterelle. Norwegians often call it skogens gull, or "the gold of the forest," because it is so tasty.
Golden chanterelle, just like its name, is a bright gold-colored mushroom. It has light yellow ridges underneath the top and a sweet, earthy smell unlike any other fungi. Some people say it smells like apricot. There is another common species of chanterelle in the Norwegian forest called the funnel chanterelle, and it is brown with yellow-ish ridges on the underside. Small and shaped like a funnel, this mushroom often grows in clusters in mossy soil. Both mushrooms are delicious in pasta, pizza or on their own fried in butter as a side dish.
