Transcript Umami
TASTE • • • • • Food Cooking Culture Wine Chocolate coffee In Defense of Food youtube clip cooking preparing fried hand food in culture Umami Umami is one of the proposed five basic tastes sensed by specialized receptor cells present on the human tongue. Umami is a Japanese word meaning "savory" or "deliciousness" and thus applies to the sensation of savoriness, specifically to the detection of the natural amino acid, glutamic acid, or glutamates common in meats, cheese and other protein-heavy foods. The action of umami receptors explains why foods treated with monosodium glutamate (MSG) often taste "heartier". Glutamate has a long history in cooking, appearing in Asian foods such as soy sauce and fish sauce; in Italian food in Parmesan cheese and anchovies. It is the taste of Marmite in the UK, of Golden Mountain sauce in Thailand, of Maggi Sauce worldwide, of Goya Sazón on the Latin islands of the Caribbean, of Salsa Lizano in Costa Rica and of Kewpie mayonnaise in Japan. from Wikipedia, 2008 wine mouthfeel Wine aromas Fine wine – what a scam At the 28th Annual International Eastern Wine Competition, Charles Shaw's 2002 Shiraz received the double gold medal, besting the roughly 2,300 other wines in the competition. Shaw's 2005 California chardonnay was judged Best Chardonnay from California at the Commercial Wine Competition of the 2007 California Exposition and State Fair. The chardonnay received 98 points, a double gold, with accolades of Best of California and Best of Class [Wikipedia] Fine wine – what a scam In 2001, Frederic Brochet, of the University of Bordeaux, conducted two separate and very mischievous experiments. In the first test, Brochet invited 57 wine experts and asked them to give their impressions of what looked like two glasses of red and white wine. The wines were actually the same white wine, one of which had been tinted red with food coloring. But that didn't stop the experts from describing the "red" wine in language typically used to describe red wines. One expert praised its "jamminess," while another enjoyed its "crushed red fruit." Not a single one noticed it was actually a white wine. Fine wine – what a scam The second test Brochet conducted was even more damning. He took a middling Bordeaux and served it in two different bottles. One bottle was a fancy grand-cru. The other bottle was an ordinary vin du table. Despite the fact that they were actually being served the exact same wine, the experts gave the differently labeled bottles nearly opposite ratings. The grand cru was "agreeable, woody, complex, balanced and rounded," while the vin du table was "weak, short, light, flat and faulty". Forty experts said the wine with the fancy label was worth drinking, while only 12 said the cheap wine was. Fine wine – a defense What these experiments neatly demonstrate is that the taste of a wine, like the taste of everything, is not merely the sum of our inputs, and cannot be solved in a bottom-up fashion. It cannot be deduced by beginning with our simplest sensations and extrapolating upwards. When we taste a wine, we aren't simply tasting the wine. This is because what we experience is not what we sense. Rather, experience is what happens when our senses are interpreted by our subjective brain, which brings to the moment its entire library of personal memories and idiosyncratic desires. Jonah Lehrer Basketball movie 2 buck chuck explained Alton Brown http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLpt_n6kWss Chocolate tasting In-class writing activity!!!! Chocolate tasting Appearance (glossy, matte, etc.) For each sample, make notes Snap Smell Texture Taste (PATIENCE – melt more than chew) Evolution of flavor (speed?) Mouthfeel Finish Aftertaste Chocolate tasting Chocolate tasting Compare them Are they different? Can you describe the difference? Do you have a preference?