IMPORTING THE SUPERIOR FUNGUS:

Corn smut? Tastes great and good for you, too! (MARTHA MENDOZA, 04/26/10, AP)

For years, scientists have assumed that huitlacoche (WEET-LA-KO-CHEE) — a gnarly, gray-black corn fungus long-savored in Mexico — had nutritional values similar to those of the corn on which it grew. But test results just published in the journal Food Chemistry reveal that an infection that U.S. farmers and crop scientists have spent millions trying to eradicate, is packed with unique proteins, minerals and other nutritional goodies.

And here’s a bonus: agro-economists have found it can sell for more than the corn it ruins.

“We had no idea huitlacoche could actually synthesize significant nutrients that don’t even exist in corn,” says Octavio Paredes-Lopez, one of Mexico’s leading food scientists.

“Who cares about the nutritional value? The flavors are amazing!” said Steve Sando, a grinning Napa Valley epicurean whose booming Rancho Gordo speciality food company grows and sells heirloom beans, corn and other indigenous “New World” ingredients.