SUPPER'S SUBTLE STARS: Even if a sliced or baked or sauteed mushroom isn't the purported centerpiece of a dish, and even if it gets like fourth or fifth billing on the menu, you can count on it playing a lot of roles in the meal. A mushroom will add some subtlety to a kicky sauce, and some chewiness to complement a dish's sharper or softer edges. Its earthy flavor can stand alone, but it shines when it is enhancing garlic or Hollandaise or lemon or the stronger cheeses. The upshot? If ever a knobby, luscious, deep-toned edible deserves a special day, it's our friend the fungi. And fungi's special days typically arrive in the fall and winter, when foraging expeditions start to pop up, both among experienced mycologists and those first-timers joining in to learn the old art form. Eager to do just that, and to have some excellent Mendocino County wine, too? Then join John Fetzer of...
SARACINA VINEYARDS... for a nice hill-rambly November day in search of mushroom goodness. Eric Schramm the "Mushroom Man" will join, making it a day of edibles and education (you'll leave knowing plenty about foraging, for sure). A quartet of courses await the foragers at the end of the forage-fun trail, and, you got it, mushrooms will assume the savory spotlight. Call them subtle, or chewy, or mellow, or earthy, but whatever you do, keep on enjoying one of the most distinctively delicous things on this planet (or any other). That this is going down, literally, into the ground, on Saturday, Nov. 12 in Hopland, ups the general fall cred. Tickets? No need to dig; they're right here.
