I've come to love ginger and have used it a lot in my cooking. One day, I was out and about and had lunch at a Thai restaurant on Fillmore Street in San Francisco. I came in, planning to order some yellow curry dish. As I looked at the menu, an item caught my attention: ginger chicken with mushrooms and black fungi. It was one of the rice plates they served during lunch. Without any hesitation, that's what I ordered and I was so pleased I did. The next day, I went shopping for black fungi at my favorite Asian grocery. It took me a white to find it. It was in the "dried goods" section, along with all the other dried food items. I didn't know exactly how to cook the fungi to make it tender like it was in the dish I ordered at the restaurant. But I figured it would be the same procedure when cooking dried mushrooms -- soaking them in water for about half and hour before cooking. Apparently, I was right!
If you're apprehensive about the black fungi, know that it is actually a very common edible mushroom used in many dishes in Asia and elsewhere. It is tasteless on its own, but acquires the flavor of your other ingredients.