'A wonderfully surprising novel, powered by wit, exuberance and nostalgia.' Chloe Aridjis, author of Sea Monsters A captivating portrait of contemporary Mexico, cut through with dazzling wit and sensitivity It started with a drowning. Deep in the heart of Mexico City, where five houses cluster around a sun-drenched courtyard, lives Ana, a precocious twelve-year-old still coming to terms with the mysterious death of her little sister years earlier. Over the rainy, smoggy summer she decides to plant a vegetable garden in the courtyard, and as she digs the ground and plants her seeds, her neighbors in turn delve into their past. As the ripple effects of grief, childlessness, illness and displacement saturate their stories, secrets seep out and questions emerge – Who was my wife? Why did my mom leave? Can I turn back the clock? And how could a girl who knew how to swim drown? Using five voices to tell the singular story of life in an inner city mews, Umami is a quietly devastating novel of missed encounters, missed opportunities, missed people, and those who are left behind. Compassionate, surprising, funny and inventive, it deftly unpicks their stories to offer a darkly comic portrait of contemporary Mexico, as whimsical as it is heart-wrenching.

In the West, we have identified only four basic tastesÑsour, sweet, salty, and bitterÑthat, through skillful combination and technique, create delicious foods. Yet in many parts of East Asia over the past century, an additional flavor has entered the culinary lexicon: umami, a fifth taste impression that is savory, complex, and wholly distinct. Combining culinary history with recent research into the chemistry, preparation, nutrition, and culture of food, Mouritsen and Styrb¾k encapsulate what we know to date about the concept of umami, from ancient times to today. Umami can be found in soup stocks, meat dishes, air-dried ham, shellfish, aged cheeses, mushrooms, and ripe tomatoes, and it can enhance other taste substances to produce a transformative gustatory experience. Researchers have also discovered which substances in foodstuffs bring out umami, a breakthrough that allows any casual cook to prepare delicious and more nutritious meals with less fat, salt, and sugar. The implications of harnessing umami are both sensuous and social, enabling us to become more intimate with the subtleties of human taste while making better food choices for ourselves and our families. This volume, the product of an ongoing collaboration between a chef and a scientist, won the Danish national Mad+Medier-Prisen (Food and Media Award) in the category of academic food communication.

The history of haute cuisine in Japan, with an emphasis on dashi and umami. Heston Blumenthal and other chefs contribute their dashi recipes.

One of Food52's Best Cookbooks of Fall 2019 One of Epicurious' 12 Best Gift Ideas for the Vegetarian in Your Life “Umami Bomb is your go-to guide for infusing every meal with deliciousness....Thanks to Raquel’s clever ideas and the abundant flavor in her smart, streamlined recipes, this book is set to become a kitchen classic.” —Lindsay Maitland Hunt, author of Healthyish and Help Yourself Ingeniously built around the use of eight umami-rich ingredients—aged cheese, tomatoes, mushrooms, soy sauce, miso, caramelized onions, smoke, and nutritional yeast—Umami Bomb's 75 recipes are bursting with the sublime, savory fifth taste—and they're vegetarian! Turn mushrooms into “lardons” for a bold take on Southern black-eyed peas and greens. Caramelize onions to use in the best grilled cheese ever. Add a secret spoonful of soy sauce to the frosting of your next chocolate cake—the soy taste disappears but leaves behind an unexpected depth of flavor. Part of the brilliance of Umami Bomb is how the recipes layer these key ingredients to amplify their effect—like adding miso to an already cheesy cacio e pepe sauce for pasta so savory and delicious you’ll do a double take. Umami Bomb "addresses the “depth” issue for vegetarian cooks with a love letter to umami... [Pelzel's] insanely next-level grilled cheese recipe deploys two umami bombs — miso and caramelized onions — and, dare I say, is as satisfyingly decadent as a burger." —Jenny Rosenstrach, A Cup of Jo

Highly qualified food and nutrition scientists combine with some of the world's greatest chefs to produce this superbly illustrated revelation of the mysterious 'fifth taste' that has gained global recognition in recent years and has become such a key component in cooking. Featuring information on the science of the umami taste, and with recipes from world-class chefs such as Heston Blumenthal, Alexandre Bourdas, Michael Anthony and many more, Umami: The Fifth Taste presents wonderful new possibilities for cuisines of every genre and culinary style.

Creating a unique value for your customers is crucial if you want to differentiate in an overcrowded market. To do so, you need to define a powerful strategy that determines consistent action across your organisation to deliver your unique flavour. How can you make it happen? How do you build a powerful yet actionable strategy, and successfully implement it across your organisation? Many leaders, marketers and designers try to answer these questions. The Umami Strategy proposes a novel approach that will help you build and execute an experience strategy that is inspirational, aspirational and motivational. Enjoyable, practical and full of hidden gems and tips, this book will help you get your organisation to align with building a unique market value through delivering memorable experiences to your customers. Because to be noticed, you need to stand out of the crowd."

Explore the wonder and magic of the fantastic fifth taste with over 60 tantalizing recipes that take flavor to another dimension. Umami is the super-savory fifth basic taste. It is both ubiquitous and elusive, present but often unrecognized, and it has the extraordinary ability to enhance individual flavors, transporting dishes to another level. It is the taste that keeps on giving long after salty, sweet, bitter, and sour flavours are spent. Umami is a Japanese word that translates as ‘savoury deliciousness’, but it is far from a Far Eastern concept. It is absolutely universal and does not belong to any single culture—it can be shared, enjoyed and appreciated by all those in possession of a tongue. Everyone has experienced it—the salted anchovy that melts into the tomato of a pizza, the irresistible marriage of pancetta and Parmesan in a creamy spaghetti carbonara, or the rich, caramelized chorizo in a pan-fried calamari and chorizo salad. Once understood, umami is your best friend both in and out of the kitchen. Umami-rich ingredients will add magic to any dish, and make great cooks out of all of us. In this book, you’ll discover extraordinary new flavor combinations in dishes such as Steak Tagliata, Umami Rub and Garlic Pesto; Dark Chocolate and Orange Chilli Con Carne; and Sunshine Laksa with Crab, Snow Peas, and Millet. This book contains a taste of the wonder and magic of umami, and once bitten you will forever be smitten.