We were shooting video of Dr. Gangi's famous haunted house on Robin Hood Road in Clifton on Thursday, when we saw this woman across the street carrying something that looked like a skull. But that was just our Halloween imagination working overtime. The head-sized thing she was carrying was actually a mushroom -- a Giant puffball, or Calvatia gigantea, to be exact. At least that's what she told us.
Marianna Krivak, who works as an engineering technician for a medical device firm, says she was a biology major in college, which accounts for her certainty that this skull-like fungus was a delicacy rather than a toxin-filled last meal. She'd parked on the Clifton side street and walked down to the Rt. 3 exit ramp, where she'd spotted the puffball from her car. She was thinking about making crepes with it.
Standard disclaimer: don't try this at home, kids. Though Krivak insists "you can't mistake this for something else," we're not counseling anyone to go down to highway exit ramps and pick wild mushrooms. At least without a biology degree.
And here's how the dish turned out...



















Excellent Food for Cats, she's got THAT right! I'd take a pass and opt for a corned beef on rye with mustard & cole slaw with a Sierra Mist.