What does it say about my karma if the California Highway Patrol pulls me over in the driveway of a Buddhist monastery?

I’ve rolled off Highway 101 near the northern California town of Ukiah, hoping to stretch my legs at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, a monastery built on the grounds of a former psychiatric hospital on the edge of town.

Wrapped up in otherworldly thoughts, I apparently notice too late that the speed limit in this world has abruptly dropped to 30 mph, and suddenly, there’s a flashing light behind me.

I don’t believe in divine intervention, but I’m grateful to whatever spirit moved the officer to wave me on with only a stern warning to watch my speed.

Slightly rattled by my encounter with the patrolman, I wander through the monastery campus, past streets with names like Mindfulness Avenue and Patience Way.

Despite the temple’s name, I’m still surprised when I enter the blocky beige building and tiptoe into the silent sanctuary. It’s covered top to bottom with small golden Buddha statues.

Thousands of them.

Thousands and thousands and thousands of delicate gold Buddhas.

(I wish I could have taken a photo, but it felt disrespectful, with two people kneeling in prayer. You can get the general idea of the Buddha statues in the temple interior here and here.)

Of course, this story has a food angle, too. The earnest young man at the temple information desk tells me that I’ve arrived too late in the afternoon for the vegetarian lunch that is served to visitors every day (except Tuesday). He says he hopes that on my next visit, I will come in time for a meal.

When I say that yes, I’d like to return to eat, he touches his palms together, ever so slightly bows his head, and far more gently than the highway patrolman, sends me on my way.

About the “Hit the Road Hungry” Road Trip
I’m doing a solo road trip from Vancouver to Los Angeles, working with a company called Hit The Road that pairs people who want to take road trips with people who need their cars moved. I’m delivering a forest green 1998 Honda Civic for its owners who are moving from British Columbia to southern California, and I’m eating my way down the west coast.

The previous posts in this series are:
When Plans for Pie Go Awry
Taco Craving
Pok Pok in Portland
Living The Serious Coffee Lifestyle in Portland
Bites By Bike, with Portland’s Pedal Bike Tours
Taste of Korea: A Taste of the Food Cart Scene in Portland
I Should Have Had the Deep-Fried Pickles
Winding Through the Redwood Forest

I hope you’ll continue to follow along as I “Hit the Road Hungry!”

About WanderFood Wednesday
Every Wednesday, you can share a photo or post about own food adventures as part of the WanderFood Wednesday blog carnival. Here’s how:

1. Post a food photo on your site.


2. Add a brief description about the photo—or a longer food-focused post—and include a link to WanderFood Wednesday.


3. Add your blog name and post title to the “Mr. Linky” form below, with a link directly to your post (not to your main blog). That’s it!

Tasty Travels!

Carolyn

Not a single person guessed the secret ingredient in last week’s mystery vegetable dessert. Want the scoop? Read on…

Maybe you’ve had carrot cake, zucchini muffins, or sweet potato pie.

At Vancouver’s L’Abattoir Restaurant, pastry chef Hilary Prince has created a deliciously simple dessert using a more unusual vegetable.

Mushrooms.

It’s the Candy Cap Mushroom Custard Tart.

Unlike most mushrooms, candy cap mushrooms have a flavor that’s almost sweet. As Prince explains, candy caps, which are sometimes called curry milkcaps, have a “maple-y, sugar-y” flavor and aroma.

She treats them like she would a vanilla bean, using dried candy caps to infuse a custard with an unexpected sweet-umami flavor.

She steeps the mushrooms in cream for about 30 to 45 minutes. Then she uses the infused cream as the base for the rich and creamy custard, adding egg yolks and sugar.

Prince also garnishes the tart with a candied candy cap. “The mushrooms are expensive,” she says, so to get more bang for her mushroom buck, she takes the candy caps that she uses for the infusion, then tosses them in sugar, and candies them. They taste almost like a smoky dried fruit.

Prince, who’s been at L’Abattoir, an innovative contemporary dining room in Vancouver’s Gastown neighborhood, since the restaurant opened in the summer of 2010, says that she first experimented with this sweet fungus by creating a candy cap mushroom ice cream. When she was looking to replace a nutmeg-scented custard tart with a new flavor, she decided to combine the two concepts and the candy cap mushroom tart was born.

Unfortunately, the candy cap mushroom tart is coming off of L’Abattoir’s dessert menu soon, as Prince replaces it with more spring-like creations. But she said she hopes to bring the candy cap confection back when the weather turns cool again.

In the meantime, if you want more ideas for cooking with candy caps, check out the Cupcake Project’s Mushroom Cupcakes, Everyday Food’s Candy Cap Crème Brulee, and Marx Foods’ “Candy Cap Challenge” Recipes.

Would you eat a mushroom dessert? Or have you encountered any really unusual desserts in your travels? Please leave a comment and let us know.

And if you’d like to share a food photo or other food adventure with WanderFood readers, join the WanderFood Wednesday blog carnival. Here’s how:

1. Post a food photo on your site.


2. Add a brief description about the photo—or a longer food-focused post—and include a link to WanderFood Wednesday.


3. Add your blog name and the title of your photo or post to the “Mr. Linky” form below, with a link directly to your post (not to your main blog). That’s it!

Tasty Travels!

Carolyn

My husband once made broccoli ice cream – a not-entirely-successful concoction.

Perhaps he needs to take lessons from the pastry chef who created this week’s mystery dish, which includes an unexpected vegetable ingredient.

Can you guess the vegetable in this dessert? The dish? Where I sampled it?

Please leave a comment with your guesses.

And if you’d like to share a food photo of your own—mysterious or not—join the WanderFood Wednesday blog carnival. Here’s what to do:

1. Post a food photo on your site.


2. Add a brief description about the photo—or a longer food-focused post—and include a link to WanderFood Wednesday.


3. Add your blog name and the title of your photo or post to the “Mr. Linky” form below, with a link directly to your post (not to your main blog). That’s it!

Tasty Travels!

Carolyn