Six varieties, in the rain, on hillsides above Mawphlang. Eaten that night in a one-pot stew with bamboo shoot and tungrymbai.
Through the monsoon the Khasi hills throw up dozens of edible wild mushrooms, and knowing which are safe is knowledge held by the people who have eaten them for generations rather than by any guidebook.
The foraging is a morning's walk and the rest of it happens in a kitchen. The markets — Iewduh in Shillong above all — are where the surplus goes, and are worth an hour in their own right.
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A wooden cabin on the Mawphlang sacred-grove edge.
