The beech mushroom (Hypsizygus marmoreus), better known by its Japanese name shimeji, is the dense little cluster of long, slender stems and small marbled caps sold as buna-shimeji (brown-cap) and bunapi or buna-shimeji white (ivory-cap). Each clump holds dozens of thin white stalks topped with caps barely a couple of centimetres across — tan and faintly marbled in the brown strain, near-pure white in the bred pale strain. Firm and almost crunchy, it is mild, nutty and a touch bitter when raw, a bitterness that vanishes on cooking to leave a savoury, gently sweet, distinctly nutty taste. It is a mushroom to be cooked, never eaten raw, and one of the most widely grown gourmet fungi of East Asia.