I hear that it is eaten in parts of Italy and the Czech Republic - but never fried as that does not kill the toxins.
I remembered reading about a mycologist living in rural France seeing people eat all kinds of poisonous mushrooms and he was stunned. It turned out that the local practice involved boiling all mushrooms twice and twice draining off teh water prior to cooking.
I also just found out my girlfriend has a mushroom allergy - she was never able to put a finger on her occasional stomach aches until one day when she had shitake mushrooms and had a bad reaction - we then realized what it was.
Shitake mushrooms can give some people a severe reaction akin to food poisoning.
Read up on the French doctor I mentioned above. I read the story in another language and it was fascinating - he ate the deadliest mushrooms THREE TIMES to demonstrate his cure and cured himself.
Yuck! I can't imagine a mushroom being worth eating after turning it to mush. Unless you're making soup with it. I love King Boletes, Aspen Scabers and Puffball mushrooms and almost always saute them in butter with a little black pepper and salt.
...- he ate the deadliest mushrooms THREE TIMES to demonstrate his cure and cured himself.
Considering the danger that just sounds nutty to me. I'm not sure his treatment is considered the state of the art either. France has pioneered the use of Milk Thistle extracts combined with antibiotics and dialysis for the treatment of Death Cap and Destroying Angel poisoning. Milk Thistle has amazing properties of liver protection and toxin removal from liver hepatocytes.
The Death Cap Amanita phalloides
Info on toxicity and treatment down the page.