The first time I heard umami, a song from the early seventies came to mind, Mamy Blue, by the Spanish group Pop Tops. That melancholic ballad became an international success, perhaps because the group’s vocalist, Phil Trim, sang correctly in English and did not make it up like the bizarre groups of the time. He had the advantage, he was from Trinidad and Tobago. The song was number one here, in Germany, France, Belgium, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden and Austria, and even reached number two in Japan.
That’s as far as we got and that’s why I proceed with this recommendation. Be sure to watch the “Gourmet Samurai” on Netflix. It is a Japanese series (2017), based on a famous manga by Masayuki Kusumi and Shigeru Tsuchiyama. The protagonist is Takeshi, a recently retired man who discovers his passion for cooking after spending his whole life working like a Japanese man. If you see it, look at the delighted face that the man makes when he eats and pronounces, or thinks of, the word “UMAI”. Its meaning is delicious. Allow me this little spoiler: Retirement plunges the protagonist into a well of doubts, however, he does not do like Spanish retirees who go in tracksuits to look at public works ditches. This Japanese is dedicated to discovering restaurants, perceiving flavors and enjoying life.
I have told you this because Gourmet Samurai helped me visualize and fully understand the meaning of umami. A word that you will have heard in Masterchef on countless occasions, but unfortunately it is somewhat complex to understand, being as it is, one of the basic flavors, along with sweet, sour, bitter and salty, which we do know perfectly. The word was coined in 1908 by Kikunae Ikeda, a professor at Tokyo Imperial University, and comes from the combination of that term that Takeshi uses so much in the series, “UMAI” (delicious) and “MI”, whose meaning is flavor. UMAMI: Delicious, smooth and prolonged flavor, which can be reached from multiple angles, such as cured meat, seafood, fermented foods such as cheese or soy sauce, to name a few examples.
In my humble opinion, this invention is the cause of Japan having so many Michelin stars. They are the bosses of rectitude, order and concert. Just like her compatriot Marie Kondo with things from home, they are also pristine in the gastronomic scene. Righteousness and honor are their currency. And if they cheat we don’t catch them. They are not like the Chinese who abuse glutamate and other tricks, a privilege they have for being a millennial culture and having been cooking longer than the rest of humanity.
The umami flavor around here is present in a socarrat at its point; in the Cabanyal titaina made over low heat with small pieces of sorra tonyina; in the flavor of capellà and dried octopus enhanced with a touch of llama; salted foods such as mullet roe; We could also consider the cod mandonguilla accompanied by its gob of all i oli a powerful umami; an essential starter such as esgarrat (espencat/esganyat) made without haste over a live fire with peppers, aubergines, garlic and English cod; the incredible pericana from Muro, which would be the crunchy version of esgarrat. The list of snacks in our traditional cuisine with intense and delicious flavor is endless.
If umami makes something clear to us, it is the freedom and interpretive capacity that it grants to each palate. The umami was there, but here we have called it all our lives, “Xe què bo”.
