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A Story of Umami
“I thought umami only came from meat!” In one of our workshops on umami, we witnessed a vegetarian tasting her way into the umami joy that can be found in so many vegetables and vegetarian dishes.
Umami is the fifth taste, the “delicious savory taste,” as it translates from the Japanese. Our mouth has Umami taste receptors based on our need for and recognition of glutamates, a necessary neurotransmitter for the human body. These glutamates, regardless of source, have a place in our diets and how our bodies and brains function. Every culture in the world has found a way to bring them into our food systems, like many variations on fish sauce, whether rakfisk or lutefisk in Norway, garum from anchovies in Italy, or nuac mam in Vietnam. Just by reading about it, your mouth is probably watering, which is the idea.
Umami inspires digestion and appetite, readying the body for the food it needs.