Word: wu
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...tough weekend in terms of weather,” captain Chris Wu said. “Conditions-wise it was pretty rough. It was a learning experience for some of the younger players...
Senior Chris Wu shot a team-best 76-71-73—220, which gave him an eighth-place individual finish at the meet...
Kunming Rare Truffle Co.'s Wu cheerfully admits that some of his clients mix his fungi with European ones. But the former metallurgist is astounded less by the chicanery than by the prices his truffles can command abroad. What Wu sells to wholesalers for $80 per kg can be resold to Westerners for 30 times that, or more than double the average yearly income in China. "Who would pay that much for a mushroom?" Wu marvels. "Is it because they think it's an aphrodisiac?" (Since medieval times, many have believed just that.) Nevertheless, Wu maintains a modicum of pride...
Back in China, though, Wu sees nothing but mycological possibility. In the past year, he has begun exporting his own truffle oil and is starting a canned--foie gras business using geese imported from Hungary. Now he's attempting to duplicate the soil and climate of southern France in his Yunnan fields. If he can create the correct environmental conditions, Wu believes Yunnan's plentiful land and low fixed costs will make him even more of a threat to the European truffle tradition. "Labor is very cheap here," Wu says. "In France they use pigs and dogs to find truffles...
None of that, however, changes one irksome fact that has limited Wu's business. The Chinese so far appear immune to the pleasures of the black truffle. Mushroom gatherer Li Kun shakes his head when asked whether he enjoys the flavor of the black nuggets he's scooping up. "When we're really hungry, we eat them covered with soy sauce, coriander, chili paste and MSG," he says. "That way you don't have to taste the truffle too much, only the sauce." Sacrilege. --With reporting by Bu Hua/Hama, Mimi Murphy/Rome and Jonathan Shenfield/Lalbenque