This is week 8 of my sports tailgate series. This weekend was exceptional for special reasons, and especially so for the Matsutake mushroom, an exquisite steeple of excellence in fine cuisine.
The Chinese might have invented lavish eating, and this what President Xi Jinping served President Donald Trump at a state dinner in the Beijing Great Hall of the People:
Coconut Flavored Chicken SoupSeafood ChowderKung Pao ChickenStewed Beef Steak in Tomato SauceBraised Vegetables in Premium BrothGrouper Fillets in Hot Chili OilPastriesFruits & Ice CreamCoffee/Tea2009 Cabernet Sauvignon from Chateau Sungod in Heibei2011 Cabernet Sauvignon from Chateau Sungod in Hebei China
That all? These particular wines can only be found in Asia and the red costs around $50/bottle. Nine and twelve-course dinners are standards I've been experienced. The French served Xi Jinping 18 courses of French dishes when he visited.
But back to my tailgate, Friday night featured Hawaiian:
On Saturday, a simple but humongous hamburger:
The third was an extraordinary Sunday brunch, featuring Japanese Wagyu Beef from Miyazaki, O-toro sashimi and Matsutake Mushroom:
Note that the mushroom costs $60/pound and the fatty blue-fin tuna $85/pound. The wagyu was at $100/pound.
This was the fattiest tuna I've ever had. The Matsutake? Well, it was earthy, not the spicy, intense and cinnamon odor touted by aficionados. This was supposed to be a sensory adventure, which you either love or hate. While I lean to the latter, this is an acquired taste. Incidentally, those are porcinis to the left.
Matsutakes are pine mushrooms living in harmony with certain types of pine and oak trees. This symbiotic relationship is not understood, so no one has yet been able to farm it. Opportunity?
The picking is cutthroat. Nature lovers decry the raids, and in the Pacific Northwest, migrant workers from Mexico and Latin American get the brunt of the vitriol. I once worked for Chancellor Doug Yamamura at the University of Hawaii, who annually spent two weeks in Washington just picking these mushrooms and could not be reached. Although we are distantly related, he never gave me a sample. Want to learn more? Click on this matsiman website.
So back to my third weekend tailgate, as much as I did not sufficiently appreciate the Matsutake, it was a worthwhile experience, and the meal itself was marvelous. Maybe it could be foie gras, caviar and truffles next week, except that no place in Hawaii sells fresh versions of goose liver and truffles. One advantage of living in places like San Francisco.
I earlier indicated that this was a special weekend for sports, too. The football, baseball and volleyball games were good and bad. My fantasy teams are surviving. But what made this weekend unique were the following minor sports.
For the first time I watched the Kona Ironman Triathlon live on television. Ann Haug and Jan Frodeno from Germany won. Very few viewers are attached to this event, but I am because I very well know the founders: Judy and John Collins. Here we are having brunch at Michels five years ago.
Also on Saturday, Vienna, Austria saw 34-year old Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge (won Olympic gold in Rio), arranged to run the marathon in less than two hours, the first time anyone has done this. This Neil Armstrong moment, however, won't be counted, for the race was scientifically planned with pacesetters who blocked the wind for him. It was merely a fantasy of perfectionism. He wore the controversial and recently released Zoom X Nike Vaporfly shoes. Amazon sells it for $240. Guess what marathoners will be wearing in the future?
While corporate sponsorship was responsible for this feat--and it was, for he ran the equivalent of a 4 hour 30 minute mile for all 26 miles plus--you almost can't blame them for their project. No one can afford a perfect marathon track and host regular races, for it would be difficult to collect fees along 26.2 miles.
And, by the way, yesterday morning at the Chicago Marathon, Kenya's 25-year old Brigid Kosgei beat the women's record by 81 seconds with a time of 2 hours, 14 minutes and 4 seconds. Here she is with Britisher Paula Radcliffe, who had held the record since 2003.
This was not all. On Sunday in Japan, just after Typhoon Hagibis left, siblings Angela and Christian Lee (from Hawaii, but representing Singapore, where they now live) won their championship matches. Mixed Martial Arts is brutal, bloody and more barbaric than boxing. If you were related to anyone fighting, you would not be able to watch the gore and mayhem.
Christian won easily, but his older sister kind of lucked out. In the final round 5 (5 minutes each), Angelina avenged her previous defeat by China's Xiong Jing Nan with a choke hold called ten seconds before the match ended. She was losing. I might add that those Japanese girls holding those round number cards were beauties.
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