I remembered when I was still a kid, we studied about the 4 basic tastes which are sweet, sour, salty and bitter, but as time passes by, I’ve been hearing about this word “umami” being the 5th taste.

So what is Umami? As per our ever so trusted Wikipedia:

Umami, popularly referred to as savoriness is one of the five basic tastes together with sweet, sour, bitter, and salty.

Umami has a mild but lasting after-taste difficult to describe. It induces salivation and a furriness sensation on the tongue, stimulating the throat, the roof and the back of the mouth….

During our Pinay Mommies Community Grand Eye Ball 2 last November 22, 2011, one of the sponsors for the said event was Ajinomoto, who was very generous enough to give all the 50 moms each a loot bag full of Umami goodness.

When I got home from the event, I handed these out to my mom, who usually is the one who cooks for the family. Since then, the food that we’ve been eating tasted much better. I didn’t know that my mom’s cooking can still be enhanced by the Umami products.

One of my all-time favorite dish is Fried Chicken. I love how my mom makes her marinade, but when I tasted this batch of chickens, it tasted much better than the previous ones I had before. I asked her if she added something different on her marinade, she told me that she used one of the Umami products that I gave her.

The chicken tasted so good that it lingered around my mouth, and made me wanted to eat more even though I was full. The feeling was exactly the same as how Umami was described in Wikipedia: “…mild but lasting after-taste difficult to describe”. Even the aroma was different, but in a nice way.

I was so glad that I got the chance to savor the Umami taste. I would highly recommend for households to stock up on Umami products and as their saying goes, Eat Well, Live Well.