guitarjim

That is an insanely cool web site. Thank you.

Alex. Thanks. I haven't tried something like bok choy. That's a fair point.

I'm wide open on sources, and trickery is fine as long as it's legit. Your examples show the challenge. A hamburger has umami. A hamburger with soy has more umami. But is the differential great enough that the average person will get it? I think the average person will taste the soy, but won't necessarily recognize that it has increased umami.

Both. Most people don't really understand what umami is. I've been asked to cook an umami themed dinner. Seems logical (to me anyway) to incorporate a bit of education along with that. The clientele are average folk, not chefs, and not hard core foodies.

All due respect, but I disagree. When learning to identify flavors in wine, whiskey or whatever, the proven method is to highlight the flavors that should be present, normally through vials that are sniffed. This accentuates that aspect of the wine when the taster takes a sip. I don't think of that as weird. To just serve a room full of people a series of umami rich dishes and tell them that what they are tasting is umami does nothing to help them, and I would feel that I was being arrogant.

Working on an umami-themed dinner menu. I want to start with an educational experience before the appetizer to teach folks what umami is, since it's not easy to identify like salt. I've read a bunch of materials on it. Suggestions included a cup of water with 1/8 tsp MSG added to it, and doing a side-by-side scrambled egg bite, one plain and one with MSG added. I've tried the egg method and you can feel/taste the difference, but I'm not sure it's pronounced enough for everyone to get it. It would be great if I could really give their brains something to hold on to as the move through the other courses. I'd appreciate any other ideas you may have. Thanks.