Rock Ear Fungus

Rock ear (yan'er, also called shi'er or 'stone ear') is a wild cliff-growing fungus — a lichen — that clings to sheer rock faces and resembles wood ear in form. Difficult and dangerous to gather and scarce in supply, it is a prized mountain delicacy of western Hunan.

Rock ear grows on the high stone cliffs around Zhangjiajie, and has long been valued precisely because it is so hard to harvest — gatherers must scale the rock face to collect it. In local cooking it has therefore been reserved for honored guests and festive occasions.

After soaking and careful washing to remove grit, it is usually stewed in soup or cooked with meat, taking on flavor while keeping a crisp bite. Because it is so hard to come by, it tends to appear at more formal meals.

Its appeal lies less in flavor alone than in the story of food won from sheer cliffs. For a visitor, it is Zhangjiajie's dramatic peaks carried onto the dinner table.