The shiitake (Lentinula edodes)'s an edible mushroom native to East Asia, which's cultivated and consumed in many Asian countries, as well as being dried and exported to many countries around the world. It's a feature of many Asian cuisines including Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai. Taxonomy and naming It's generally known in the English-speaking world by its Japanese name, shiitake (kanji: ; literally "shii mushroom", from the Japanese name of the tree that provides the dead logs on which i… (More on Shiitake)