Wren tastes his first truffle

Wren has been obsessed with truffles for a while.  He has asked for truffles for his birthday, has begged to "go and find truffles" and has asked "when will we GET truffles".  He had not eaten one, his interest was based purely on a child's fascination with things rare, special, expensive, denied.

I told him I could not find truffles because I did not have a truffle dog or pig and that they were too expensive.  This only increased the desire to Have Truffles.

"I know I will like them!" Wren told his friend and his father, "even though I have never had one.  I love all mushrooms!"  "How do you KNOW you'll like them?" asked his hot-dog-and-rice loving friend.  "I WILL" said Wren.

Today, I wanted to lure the kids out of the house to a Farmers' Market and noticed that Foraged and Found  said they have local Black Truffles in stock in November.  I promised Wren that we could get a few truffles at the market.

"How many can I get?" asked Wren.  "Will it be $100?  I want to buy a BOX."
"It will depend on how much they cost..." I explained.  You can definitely get two.

It turned out that local black truffles (which are typically not as intense as the white or european) were $12 an ounce.  We bought 6 for $20.  Wren asked how to eat them and the vendor explained that we should rinse the dusting of earth from the surface and then grate a few finely over fresh cooked pasta with oil/butter.  He suggested a zester.

All the way around the marked Wren was smelling in his bag saying he could smell them.  That they smelled "like mushrooms".  Frost and I could smell nothing.  Frost said "It smells like paper bag".

When we got home Josh became impatient with Wren because he kept saying "TRUFFLE TRUFFLE TRUFFLE".  Its a good word but quickly gets overused.  I decided Wren did not have to wait for dinner since the trufflepation was killing us so I zested a small piece of cleaned truffle onto a dab of butter and let Wren eat it.

Then he wanted a sliver of raw truffle.  We tried that too.

"I knew I would like it."  He announced.  "It tastes delicious, just like FUNGUS"

Honestly, I can't taste anything much - either they were not fully mature and pungent or its my nose challenge.  I shall cook it properly later with some pasta.

At least Wren is satisfied.