Umami? Memami.

This semester has been a busy one, forcing me into activity every day of the week. I work four days, I go to school for three, that leaves me without any lovely "free day" in which all the hours stretch ahead of me like a virgin landscape. Of course I'm idealising it, but now that reading week is finally starting I'm going to have my first perfectly free day tomorrow after quite a while. And so, at last, I am making another post in this little blog of mine.


Today, kids, we're going to learn about "umami". Can you say "umami"?

The other day at work, my coworker Jerry was telling me that in Japan and China, they have a fifth taste. Aside from bitter, sweet, salty, and sour, "umami" has been discovered. In 1908, Dr. Kikunae Ikeda of Tokyo Imperial University isolated this taste while trying to figure out what caused the delicious flavour of "konbu" (kelp) stock. He managed to isolate glutamate as the culprit. Of course, it wasn't until the 1980's that umami was proven a legitamite "fifth taste" through studies of the taste receptors in the tongue.

"Umami" can be described as "savory" or, as my coworker said after struggling for a descriptor, "toasty". The taste of umami itself is subtle. It blends well with other tastes to expand and round out flavours. Most people don’t recognise umami when they encounter it, but it can be detected when eating ripe tomatoes, parmesan cheese, cured ham, mushrooms, meat and fish. And really, if you think about it, you can probably isolate the similarity of these ingredients in your mind. What does steak have in common with cheese? Umami.

Of course, finding out about this discovery has isolated for me what it is that makes me love certain foods. I just really really like umami.