Close Encounter with Umami
Tastes Like Meat or Ripe Cheese
Have you heard the latest news about our tastebuds? Scientists are finally feeling comfortable confirming that there are another set of tastebuds that foodies have long suspected were real. As most grade school kids know, we taste sweet, salty, sour, and – my kids’ least favorite and one of my top tastes – bitter. However, the Japanese came up with the name for the other taste, and they call it “umami”. Umami sounds like it could be some kind of street curse in either Japan or Italy – you know, put the emphasis on the second syllable. But seriously, umami is the taste ascribed to things like meat, seafood, fermented beans and ripe cheese.
Over this past weekend we joined my family for a weekend at a resort in upstate New York. During our first dinner, my dad ordered a couple of bottles of red wine for the group. I drank one of the wines which was a very good pinot noir. But I didn’t get to the second wine until later in the meal. I took one sip and immediately the sensation of eating a steak hit my palate (no, I wasn’t eating steak for dinner, I was having rack of lamb). My mom overheard me and said she immediately thought of blue cheese when she tasted wine. And there you have it – umami. A delicious surprise when you least expect it.
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I am reminded of your post about the chef’s not recognizing the taste of ingredients when they were blindfolded. I wonder if you were blindfolded if the wine would taste and different? I also enjoy my steak sprinkled with a little bleu cheese. May be I should just drink wine.
Tastes are a funny thing. Even blindfolded, I’d taste the same, since I was expecting wine and got steak instead. You’re quite an umami lover – I bet you like sushi too.