Umami

Umami (Oo Mah Mi) - is becoming a hot "buzz" word in world of cooking.
This full-rich flavor description is catching on, and more and more people are becoming aware of this natural flavor component.
I think it's great for the general American population to learn a bit about how other people approach food in other countries and cultures.


as per Wiki :

Umami ( 旨み、旨味, うまみ, Umami^?) is one of the five basic tastes sensed by specialized receptor cells present on the human tongue.^[1] The same taste is also known as xiānwèi (traditional Chinese: 鮮味; simplified Chinese: 鲜味) in Chinese cooking. Umami is a Japanese word meaning "savory" or "meaty" and thus applies to the sensation of savoriness—specifically, to the detection of glutamates, which are especially common in meats, cheese and other protein-heavy foods. The action of umami receptors explains why foods treated with monosodium glutamate (MSG) often taste "fuller".

In as much as it describes the flavor common to savory products such as meat, cheese, duck, and mushrooms, umami is similar to Brillat-Savarin's concept of osmazome, an early attempt to describe the main flavoring component of meat as extracted in the process of making stock.