Challenge #9: Try truffle

The Mundaring Truffle Festival was on this weekend and it reminded me that I went last year and ticked off the first thing from my 30 by 30 list.

You can find the original blog entry here

and the article on Jamie Oliver's website that Bella was supposed to appear in (except she cracked a sad and refused to have her photo taken) here,

as well as Slow Food Perth's articles on the day (they were the ones running the food-finders tent and hosting the photographer and journalist) here, here and here.

Since I wrote that blog post, I *have* learned to love like appreciate the truffle. Or truffle oil, at least.

The paradox of the truffle is that its taste is kind of warm and earthy and gamey and.... rustic. But it's price is high end.

So far I have enjoyed it in risotto, in arancini (same thing, really, isn't it?) and drizzled on a potato and rosemary pizza. In each case, the dish had to be hot, simple and salty.

I have un-enjoyed it spilled on my tiled floor where despite my best efforts to clean it up, the strong petrol-ish smell of the truffle oil lasted for DAYS. I'm just glad it was only the lid of the bottle that broke, not the whole thing. We only lost about 10ml- imagine if the whole 100ml had spilled. We would have had to live in a motel room for a month!

The hazelnuts in truffle honey... not a hit no matter how hard I try and like them. They've been great for offering to people who want to know what truffle tastes like because the taste is milder. But the taste keeps 'repeating' for an hour or so afterwards. Gross.

So there we go. I've tried it. I didn't like it. I can make fancy truffle oil mini arancini for posh parties. And we can all move on.

As always, you can find the full list of challenges here.