Scott Shephard

Had you asked me if I wanted to spend part of a day in rural Romania in search of truffles, I would have said, “Not really.” In fact, that’s what I did say. But I was quickly convinced by the rest of my travel group that I should rethink my answer. And I did.

So here we are, in very rural Romania following Lynn, who organized this quest, who is following Sandra Viorel (far right), a paid professional truffle hunter. He did not speak English and we didn’t speak Romanian or French, his other language. And so we followed him mainly in silence for an hour or so while his two truffle hunting hounds went about their business.

Yes, they were dogs, not pigs, which I was under the impression were the hunters of choice. Why dogs? Well, they have good noses, are easily trained and are better at jumping into their kennels in the back of a Jeep when the hunt is over. Pigs have a limited vertical jump.

All this aside, it was a beautiful October day to be walking through the Romanian woods. It was warm and windless and the only sounds were the crunch of leaves and the Romanian commands Sandru gave to his two dogs. They did well in their search and Lynn bagged close to a pound of truffles.

If you are wondering what truffles are here’s a simple answer: They are a form of fungus that grow near tree roots in certain parts of the world at certain times of the year. They are considered a delicacy when shaved or sliced and put on foods such as pasta. They can be very expensive, with prices of Italian black truffles starting at $78 an ounce. Don’t even ask about white truffles.

It occurs to me that I could buy 18 Culver’s single deluxe Butterburgers for the equivalent cost of an ounce of truffles. But I wouldn’t have nearly as much fun searching for them as we did the day we went truffle hunting.

Canon R5 f/4/5 180 sec ISO 640

In the following photos you will see Sandru’s dogs, our truffle harvest and photos of a meal Lynn prepared for Jon and herself a few days after we left for home.