And not on purpose.

Have to say I’ve never seen this before: A mushroom growing in my kitchen.

Not in a planter. Not in a pot.

Out of the floor. Does that look creepy, or what?

That perhaps begins to tell you about the quality of construction here in Abu Dhabi.

When Leah said, “There’s a mushroom growing in the kitchen!” I thought it must be out of the clear-out drain in the floor. Maybe there was just enough gunk in there for a plant to root in, and there it went.

But no. This was coming out of a crack between the sink cabinets … and the dinky washing machine.

One stalk. White. About four inches long.

What had it rooted in? Dirt maybe, if the stone flooring in here is cracked. Or maybe the wood at the bottom of the cabinets (which have suffered flooding a half-dozen times just since we’ve been here) has decayed to the point that it can sustain vegetable life. I suppose I’ve seen mushrooms growing out of fallen tree trunks.

And yes, we’ve got plenty of water. Every time it rains. Every time we run the washer.

Have I mentioned this? I compare construction quality here to that of Mexico. Random, ad hoc, and it might collapse because of shoddy work or poor materials. Buildings here can be falling apart — and be five years old.

I would be worried about mold, in this heat and humidity, but thankfully the walls are all solid, pre-fab, mold-resistant concrete — which I had hammered home to me when I tried to drill a hole in the wall to hang a mirror. Got a quarter-inch in … and that was that.  Went for the glue.

But something was growing down there in the cracks, and it was creepy. A mushroom, and goodness knows what else.

And no, we didn’t sautee it.