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In poorer inland villages, he has lingered over crops of wood ear fungus and chrysanthemum — the kinds of commercial farming crucial to his antipoverty drive.

Finally, we tackle our remaining dish: Buddha’s Feast, a mixture of mushrooms, wood ear fungus, cabbage and tofu.

Dead elm stumps support the fruiting bodies of wood ear fungus.

“Your wood ear fungus here is famous,” he told a clapping crowd of villagers in Shaanxi, Chinese television news showed.

But it’s a vegetable dish that creates an indelible taste memory for me: parcels of tofu skin wrapped around slivered mushrooms, wood ear fungus and carrots, with baby bok choy cooked to perfect sweetness.