Wood Ear

In China, wood ear is so obvious that nobody calls it a supplement. It is simply there in the bowl, next to ginger and vinegar. For me it is a reference point for how much of this industry is fashion and how much is plain food. And there is more in it than that ordinariness suggests: polysaccharides and beta-glucans, fibre, and melanin, the same pigment that gives it its black colour and has research papers of its own. In my ritual I place it on an empty stomach or half an hour before a meal.