On Friday, August 7, 2015 at 4:22:33 AM UTC-4, dsi1 wrote:

> I don't think the West has much of a history with the taste. The
> Japanese do because they have been fermenting rice and soybeans
> utilizing Aspergillus oryzae for a couple of thousand years. At it's
> heart, the umami taste is the end result of fermentation with this
> fungus. They use it to produce shoyu, miso, sake, shio koji, fermented
> tofu, and other products. This makes A. oryzae the most important fungus
> to the Japanese and is responsible for much of the flavor of Japanese
> cuisine. Only a Japanese could have discovered "umami."

You get a lot of umami with nicely browned meat. We have a lot of
experience with that, and with a host of other foods that provide
umami: tomatoes, anchovies, hard cheeses, mushrooms, etc.

Umami is not exclusively a Japanese thing, although they monetized it
when they invented MSG, and they provided us with a name for it.

Cindy Hamilton