Umami

Learn about umami, the fifth flavor in food, and its significance in Japanese cuisine. This article explores the history of umami and its discovery as a fundamental element of dining experience.

From the NYT You're the Boss blog: "Umami is the fifth flavor in food, the untranslatable Japanese word that means "delicious" or "pungent" or "essence" or "gimme more." From 300 B.C. until the early 1900s, there had been but four flavors available to the human tongue -- salty, sweet, sour and bitter -- and then an artist and a scientist, on different continents, discovered the same fifth flavor..." Read entire post here