Paengi-beoseot (enoki mushroom)

Paengi-beoseot is the enoki or winter mushroom (Flammulina velutipes). Its Korean name ties it to the paeng-namu, the East Asian hackberry tree on which it grows in the wild, and it is also called paeng-namu-beoseot. The familiar product is a cultivated form with slender pale stems up to about 12 centimeters long and small, button-sized caps.

Commercial cultivation began in Japan, which is why the Japanese name enokitake is widely used abroad. According to Korea's agri-food export agency, serious cultivation in Korea started in the late 1980s, and enoki is now grown in bottles of sawdust medium in highly automated facilities. It has become a significant export: the agency reports roughly 7,500 tonnes shipped in 2025, about half of it to the United States, followed by Australia and the Netherlands.

At home, enoki is a soup-and-stew mushroom. It goes into doenjang-jjigae and cheonggukjang-jjigae, clear soups and hot pots, and is added near the end so that it keeps some bite.

Enoki carries a specific food-safety note. In 2020 the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention linked 36 Listeria infections in 17 states, including 31 hospitalizations and four deaths, to enoki mushrooms from a supplier in the Republic of Korea; a second U.S. outbreak in 2022–23 was tied to enoki from China. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration now holds enoki from both countries under a country-wide import alert, and U.S. agencies advise cooking enoki thoroughly rather than eating it raw.

• Fiber and B vitamins: Per the Korean Food Composition Table, enoki is low in calories and a source of fiber, B vitamins and potassium.
• Always cook enoki: Listeria monocytogenes has caused U.S. outbreaks linked to imported enoki. The FDA and CDC advise cooking enoki thoroughly, not eating it raw, keeping it away from ready-to-eat foods and washing hands after handling it.
• Higher-risk groups: Listeria is most dangerous for people who are pregnant, adults 65 and older, and people with weakened immune systems; in pregnancy it can cause miscarriage, stillbirth or newborn infection.
• Store cold: Listeria can survive and even grow at refrigerator temperatures, so use packaged enoki by its date and discard any that is slimy or discolored.