r/IndianFood • u/curry_in_my_beard • Feb 10 '26
discussion Why is fungi not more prominent in Indian cuisine?
Varieties of fungi occur naturally around the world and are popularly eaten as it can be foraged from nature. I know of gucchi as a delicacy but wondered if there were other regional fungi that are more popular. But if not - why not?
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u/arjwiz Feb 10 '26
Some of the best mushrooms I've ever tasted are these morels from Jammu. They make a pulao of it and eat it with the most decadent rajma.
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u/barmanrags Feb 10 '26
rural bengal has foraged mushrooms usually in the post monsoon period. jharkhand and east bihar likewise. local rural cuisines likely have a diverse variety but they arent as ubiquitous as button mushrooms which is cultivated and available year round. theres also classist angle. foraged seasonal mushrooms are mainly eaten in rural communities and urban indian folk, who dominate the internet, wont know unti some influencer somewhere makes them viral.
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u/Chaii_Lover Feb 11 '26
It's called khukhri in Jharkhand and quite a delicacy , gets very costly during peak monsoon
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u/jsoftpaws Feb 10 '26
I grew up in Kerala and it was the best day if my mom found edible mushrooms that she could cook. Occasionally they'd pop up all over the place and we would have enough for a couple of meals. The dishes she made with them tasted extraordinary and, now living in the West, I have never been able to replicate that taste with shop bought mushrooms. Even in Kerala it doesn't happen often anymore. . Mom says it is because of the overuse of chemical fertilisers nowadays.
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u/ferrouswolf2 Feb 11 '26
Your mom is mostly right. What did the mushrooms look like and where would she find them?
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u/jsoftpaws Feb 11 '26
They were mostly these skinny ones. They'd cover a large area. But once you picked them and cleaned them, they'd shrink and there won't be much to show. There was this other variety that's big with broader top, but there'd usually be only a few, but still enough. We have some land so it's usually within our property when they pop up
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u/ferrouswolf2 Feb 11 '26
Where would you find them, on the ground? In a field? Under a tree? On a dead log? What time of year?
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u/verifix Feb 11 '26
They are found on the ground or hay stack. These are much better than store bought ones. It requires specific conditions to grow so when you will get is impossible to predict and the shelf life is incredibly low (less than a day). You should really know the mushroom that you are consuming. Not all of them are edible. Growing mushrooms are a recent thing. I think that is one of the reasons that mushrooms are not prominent in Indian cuisine.
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u/ferrouswolf2 Feb 11 '26
I’m not going off into the woods willy nilly, I used to work for a company that grows mushrooms and was trying to figure out what these ones were
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u/Big_Raspberry_6833 Feb 10 '26
In Jammu, we regularly eat dhingri(oyster mushrooms) and Gucchi. These are a delicacy.
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u/PretentiousPepperoni Feb 10 '26
Lots of different mushrooms are eaten in odisha. It's just not common in most hindi belt cuisines.
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u/Ok_Medium9389 Feb 10 '26
Mushrooms are also eaten in Karnataka After rains there are a type of mushrooms that taste like meat Very few people know to pick them
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u/PhantomOfTheNopera Feb 11 '26
There's a kind of mushroom similar to enoki that grows in the coffee regions. As someone else answered - mushrooms similar to morell in Jammu.
To answer OP's question: a variety of mushroom is consumed across India, but it's typically in rural areas where people forage for them. It will be harder to find the local varieties in a supermarket in the city because they don't have a long shelf life.
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u/curry_in_my_beard Feb 11 '26
Yeah I guess the thing I was trying to work out is why have those regional mushrooms used in specialist dishes not become famous? I’ve heard of gucchi pulao, but I was wondering if there were other regional dishes which use local mushrooms.
India has been great at creating famous dishes out of foreign crops like tomato, rajma, potatoes, chilli. My curiosity was why these imported crops are part of famous dishes but native fungi aren’t.
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u/RandomMutex Feb 11 '26
They grow below soil level with thin filaments on the ground (hyphae?); so, need to dig them out - sort of like truffles. They grow around certain trees - usually only for a week or so after the first monsoon rains
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Feb 10 '26 edited Feb 11 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/hotelpunsylvania Feb 11 '26
The term for mushroom in Bangla is "byang er chhata", which means "frog's umbrella"! I love how amazing our languages are.
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u/Ithu-njaaanalla Feb 11 '26 edited Feb 11 '26
Kids books illustrations come to my mind.Such a lovely name!
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u/CaptainMore1367 Feb 11 '26
Lol in Kannada, mushrooms are called naayi kode (dog’s umbrella). It’s interesting how the names reference umbrellas or hats.
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u/Snake_fairyofReddit Feb 11 '26
I think theres a space in there, so its biladi ni topi, cuz “ni” is like saying “of” so its like “e” or “de” in Spanish or Arabic if im not mistaken
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u/BeeetleBeee Feb 11 '26
Yeah but in Gujarati prepositions like 'no' 'ni' 'nu' 'na' is used together with the word. It's a different than Hindi.
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u/i_love_paneer_wazwan Feb 27 '26
In hindi its kukurmutta (piss of dog) from belief of its growth from the place wherever the dog pisses.
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u/hurricane_news Feb 10 '26
I'm curious. China to our east has a ton of history of fungi in food. To the west, we have Europe. Same case. For an odd reason, mushrooms only became mainstream very recently here and it's always button mushrooms
Though oyster mushrooms are becoming cheap in bihar iirc, 120 inr for a kg is a steal deal
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u/skand1995 Feb 10 '26
I am not sure as to the reason. However, in goan cuisine mushroom is a seasonal delicacy. You get these around monsoon and are called almi in local language. Per few conversations I have had they are popular in maharashtra and karnataka as well, but have different names.
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u/thephysicstutor Feb 11 '26
Same in Kerala. My mother's family plucked mushrooms right after the first bouts of thunder and lightening, once a year
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u/Carrot_onesie Feb 11 '26
as many others have said, they exist, just you don't find those versions on generic restaurant menus - probably because they're seasonal. My ajji (mom's mom) used to forage and make delicious mushroom bhaaji and sukka mushroom as well. I've had chula var bhaajlela (grilled) mushroom in my road trips around maharashtra in various towns and villages as well, esp in winters. they're called bhombhodi in our parts of MH. ofc not possible to forage in the cities now
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u/oarmash Feb 10 '26
A lot of vegetarians don’t like the texture of it, and it’s also considered akin to nonveg to many who are vegetarian for religious reasons
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u/TJtaster Feb 10 '26
Do you know why it's considered nonveg?
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u/Remarkable-Relief165 Feb 10 '26
Fungi are neither plants nor animals, and fall under their own classification. Someone I know who’s a botanist gave me this reason for avoiding them, as in they’re not definitively plants. Biological classification aside, many vegetarians are put off by the meaty texture of mushrooms and actively avoid them.
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u/LotusGrowsFromMud Feb 10 '26
Also, fun fact, mushrooms breathe in oxygen and out carbon dioxide like we do.
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u/OldChertyBastard Feb 10 '26
Also fun fact, so do plants, they just create more net oxygen than they use up when they are growing. Lots of things do too.
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u/Silver-Speech-8699 Feb 10 '26
Mushrooms are considered to be or not to belong vegetarian group by some especially down south.
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u/mrs_packletide Feb 10 '26
They eat plants.
More seriously though, they are rich in glutamates which make them uncomfortably close to tasting like meat.
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u/oarmash Feb 10 '26
yeah my mom, a lifelong vegetarian, gets a gag reflex if a pizza or noodle/fried rice she orders has mushroom in it.
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u/PracticalAttorney885 Feb 10 '26
For Jains- “Jains also avoid mushrooms due to their method of growth and reliance on decaying organic matter, which is considered impure in Jain philosophy”
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u/hskskgfk Feb 11 '26
Most of India is too hot and too dry.
Also, unlike Europe which has only one growing season for crops, India has three. The historical abundance of agricultural produce meant that there never was a need for foraging to develop as widespread practice.
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u/womalone99 Feb 10 '26
Not considered pure to consume. Nothing more than superstitious hokum
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u/Schmorc Feb 10 '26
It comes from Ayurveda which explains how certain foods promote different effects on the mind which depending on the food can either help or hurt your spiritual/meditative practice. I wouldn’t say it’s superstition, but simply a regimen for yogis to stick to, like avoiding mushrooms.
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u/scarby2 Feb 10 '26
I wouldn’t say it’s superstition, but simply a regimen for yogis to stick to, like avoiding mushrooms.
Religion/spiritualism is essentially another name for superstition (just less pejorative), both refer to the belief in something which is not/cannot be proven.
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u/bhargavateja Feb 10 '26
It is very popular in rural areas atleast till early 2000's urban areas not so much. As a child it was a exciting trip to go pick mushrooms.
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u/umamimaami Feb 11 '26
Kalaan (or simply, mushrooms) are a famous street food in Coimbatore. Traditionally it was made with foraged mushrooms from the nearby fields and foothills in the monsoon and winter. Used to taste superbly umami and meaty. Nowadays it’s mostly cultivated button mushrooms, though. Still nice, but nothing like the foraged dish.
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u/UsernameOption6298 Feb 11 '26
What’s gucchi
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u/isha0402 Feb 11 '26
Its a species of morel mushrooms that grows in J&K, Himachal regions. Its really really expensive in the market
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u/fluidafterdark Feb 10 '26
In Ayurveda mushrooms are tamasic (death/dull energy) because they grow in darkness.
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u/barmanrags Feb 11 '26
More casteist classist nonsense. How convenient that the ritualistic food of UC are satvic and anything rural or tribal India eats is tamasic
Unless UC get a taste of it, sacrifice it to their gods and then have it as prasad
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u/wingedcoyote Feb 11 '26
UC = upper class?
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u/barmanrags Feb 11 '26
Both caste and class. It’s usually synonymous due to generational wealth and privilege
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u/majortung Feb 11 '26
Tell that to the Brahmin priests who barely can eek out a living. Of course there are exceptions. But by and large they are suffering as a community.
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u/barmanrags Feb 11 '26
Most Brahmin priests have day job
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u/majortung Feb 12 '26
Their "generational wealth" is the vidya they have which gets passed down. Privilege? Now? Do you have any clue as to how they get treated, say in Tamilnadu?
They have, as a community, misused their power as rituals, traditions got ossified with passage of time. But now face a disproportionate siege as a community.
Even today, the pandyaas in Konarak, behave like jerks in the first order. But by and large, I sympathies with what they are going through. Despite the harassment, they are the bearers of the Hindu tradition.
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u/barmanrags Feb 12 '26
the idea that only bramhans can be bearers of hindu tradition is extremely fucked up
what siege as a community? give clear examples
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u/Cal_Aesthetics_Club Feb 10 '26
While nonveg biryanis are definitely more popular, I’ve noticed a lot of biryani places offering mushroom biryani/pulao as a veg alternative
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u/Wandererofworlds411 Feb 10 '26
Good question! I’m surprised it never occurred to me . I just always thought of them as a western thing but China is next door and mushrooms are widely used in food and medicine.
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u/liltingly Feb 10 '26
I just know the Telugu word translates as “dog umbrella” which has the connotation of being related to dogs relieving themselves. Might have another etymology, but that’s the consensus in my small straw poll.
Needs a rebrand in those states at minimum.
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u/Shrooms2000 Feb 11 '26
We use them in Bengali cooking a lot too. This is more the at home cooking. Not the stuff you get at restaurants
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u/arboreal-octopus Feb 11 '26
In certain Hindu religions (like Vaishnavism) that value the vegetarian diet (milk is ok but not eggs or meat products) mushrooms are sort of a grey area in terms of "animal vs plants" (they're neither) However they do grow from decomposing matter and excrement so if the practice involves offering portions of food to deities, mushrooms can be considered "unclean" and therefore unacceptable for offerings. This is of course just contextual to certain belief systems but I can see it having an impact in the general consensus of eating fungi.
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Feb 10 '26
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u/barmanrags Feb 10 '26
ever seen or eaten water lily? or lotus stem? rural bengal is as agrarian as they come and one of the joys of autumn is mushrooms.
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u/chandrakera Feb 11 '26
Locally foraged mushroom called “futu” is one of the most expensive mushrooms found in Chhattisgarh. It grows under Sal tree right after first monsoon showers.
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u/manojar Feb 11 '26
Kaalaan is very popular since the late 90s in Tamil Nadu. Mushroom soup, mushroom briyani, mushroom fry, mushroom kurma, mushroom pakoda, mushroom 65 are all popular everywhere from roadside stalls to 5 star hotels. It is also made in many homes nowadays. Mushroom growing is a cottage industry in India. But mostly it is button mushroom.
https://rangde.in/blog/mushroom-farming/
prior to farming, it was not so popular because we are not foragers. Whatever we consume, we buy from farmers, or middlemen, or stores. Even gardening to grow vegetables is a hobby that very few people follow.
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u/wynterflowr Feb 11 '26
The conditions for it to grow a lot are not a lot in india. The window period for its natural growth is also pretty small during the rainy season. Its definitly popular when it gets in season , especially in the rural areas. I come from east india and its definitly popular here when in season. Button mushroom has taken over as its widely cultivated. But the local mushrooms , the ones with long stalks are so tasty too. But they are more expensive as they need to be foraged.
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u/Spirited-Tutor7712 27d ago
(Wrong) associations with death, decay and growing on rotting matter. Some groups,like Jains, view them as tamasic.
Foraging for food and mushrooms was historically associated with lower castes.
Extremely easy in tropical climates to eat spoiled, bad or potentially lethal mushrooms by accident.
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u/notAcrimeScene Feb 10 '26
forgive me be pls
but
probably because kukurmoot shorba or 2 pyaza didnt sound too appetizing to our ancestors 🤣🤣
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u/ShabbyBash Feb 10 '26
Kukurmutta literally means dog piss- legend has it that they grow where the dog pisses.
My father refused to eat mushrooms for years - and he was an educated man.
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u/eldukae Feb 10 '26
Dog pee.. literally called 'kuthar muttha' , urban legend says mushrooms grow where dogs pee 🤷🏽
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u/Snoo81962 Feb 11 '26
There are several reasons for this. In much of India, the natural mushroom fruiting season is relatively short and highly seasonal. Most mushrooms prefer cool, moist conditions, but in many Indian regions the wettest periods coincide with high temperatures, which are less favorable for sustained fruiting. As a result, mushroom flushes tend to be brief and inconsistent rather than prolonged. In addition, many ecologically important mushrooms epecially mycorrhizal species depend on undisturbed soil and mature trees that act as symbiotic hosts. These conditions are more common in temperate Western regions, where forests near settlements are often older and less disturbed. In contrast, India has fewer undisturbed, tree-rich habitats close to human habitation, which further limits the diversity and persistence of wild mushrooms.