Professionals gathered at Schoolhouse Beach to forage seaweed, seeking the flavor umami, defined as the fifth taste complementing salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. This flavor, identified in 1908 by a Japanese scientist, is primarily accessible through edible fungi and algae. Brian Noyes of Sonoma Coast Seaweed Co. emphasized umami as a sensation that connects flavor and texture, contrasting it with spiciness. The event occurred during low tide, allowing participants to gather specific seaweed varieties to enhance culinary experiences.
Umami is the flavor we were looking for. First defined in 1908 by a Japanese scientist, it's considered the fifth flavor, rounding out the field of salty, sweet, sour and bitter.
Umami's salty-savory aspect is often not described so much as a taste. Umami is a sensation that transcends the difference between flavor and texture.
Vaguely corresponding sensory experiences exist in the spice of chile, pepper or horseradish. But almost in the opposite of a spicy sensation, umami is the feeling, the experience, of having one's mouth be embraced from the inside.
We were out there to harvest flavor, and that flavor specifically resides in seaweed. The sun had just come up, and the minus tide was going out.
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