Of Desert Truffles and Regulations
Dr. Mohammed T. Al-Rasheed, comments@d-corner.com

Dr. Abu Zenada of the environmental agency said last week that he wants to protect the desert truffle by issuing licenses and regulating the collection of the delicacy.

Anything that will help protect our decimated flora and fauna is welcome. In this instance, however, the good doctor does not seem to understand the desert or its products.

Dr. Al-Rasheed can usually be counted on for informative and entertaining columns. He doesn’t let us down today.

Combining a libertarian penchant with a large dose of common sense, he argues against the imposition of regulations concerning the dessert truffle (also known as faqa’a, to the delight of Arabic students.) You may also remember a US media flap some years ago, when then-Secretary of State Albright and her party were given a large box of truffles during a visit to the KSA. Much hair was torn and lawyers’ timesheets filled in trying to figure out the value of the gift. Where they like black or white truffles, they’d have been an unacceptable gift. But since they were the puny greys, they ended up being accepted. No reports on how well they were gustatorially reaceived.

This is a true truffle, but nothing like the French or Italian varieties that claim hundreds of dollars the pound. Rather, it’s a lowly thing, bland and insipid, once used to adulterate potatoes in the marketplace. Its role on the table is very similar to the potato, in fact, and now available in tins.

Rather than protecting the truffle, Al-Rasheed says, it’s far more important to protect the environment in which truffles are found. That environment also supports numerous other plants and animals in need of protection.

Very interesting article!