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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   2711 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 3, 2026

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My MIL is cooking mashed potato patties stuffed with chopped wild mushrooms, which I consider a waste of effort. Frying some potatoes with the same mushrooms would be like eight times quicker and would taste better IMO. But she really loves the dish along with the rest of the terrible Soviet canteen-style cooking, so she gets to make it once in a while.

My wife is cooking us two a steak as well, so the dinner won't be so depressing.

Real personally gathered wild mushrooms? There are few poisonous ones in Soviet areas, but many poisonous ones with identical appearances to safe mushrooms in the US.

No, they were from the friendly neighborhood supermarket. All three species only grow in the wild, though:

  • Boletus edulis
  • Leccinum aurantiacum
  • Leccinum scabrum

I think the morels are pretty safe here. Wouldn't expect someone to stuff those into patties, though.

Sounds good to me. Steaks also sound good. The 和牛/wagyu beef most often sold as high end steak here doesn't quite do it for me. It's not bad but it tastes like an Alien's version of what a steak should taste like. That's heresy here to say aloud, but the best steak I've ever had (outside some tournedos de rossini) was in Alabama cooked on a grill at my friend's house.

Why is this heresy? The US is well-known worldwide for its love of grilled beef.

The heresy part is my lack of enthusiasm for wagyu. The marbling, which is what is supposed to make it so good, is what to me makes the texture oddly surreal.

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