On 8/7/2015 12:40 AM, Cindy Hamilton wrote:
> 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
>

I understand that the West has foods with umami flavors but to the
average Westerner, umami is a mysterious thing. The reason is because
most of them were not raised with shoyu or fish sauce as their national
condiment. Hawaiians understand it because they put shoyu on everything
- from fish to stews, heck we put shoyu on rice. We totally get the
concept.