The Fifth Taste: Umami

All foods (or things that can be tasted) can be grouped into five taste categories; salty, sweet, bitter, sour, and umami. The curiosity of umami only recently came to my attention and I've sense been entranced by the "delicious taste." (Umami means delicious taste in Japanese).

Our first encounter with umami is breast milk, so you can imagine that most of us like the flavor. Umami can be found in foods like: mushrooms, soy beans, cured seafood products like sardines, shrimp, potatoes, soy sauce, eggs, pork, and much more. The foods I've enjoyed recently that have umami are miso soup and paste, roasted seaweed, Kabocha squash, walnuts, and shoyu poke. Miso paste can be used to marinate fish and shrimp or you can make salad dressing from it, too.

Fun umami finds:

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