Around Town

YOU CAN TASTE THE LOVE

This bench only looks lonely.  It isn't.  Sometimes when I drag myself around the walking trails at Meeks Park, I have to wait for this bench unless I want to sit with a stranger.  Don't get me wrong -- I'm not opposed to strangers because every friend I have used to be one.  But when you're out of breath and want to commune with nature -- a silent, lonely bench does the trick.

No lonely bench last Sunday, though.  BIG crowd at a picnic I attended in the park with my fellow Unitics from Unity Church of the Mountains.  I'm a caterer and I loved everything these beautiful people prepared and offered -- all was delightfully delish.  You really can taste the love, you know.  It's definitely why I'm still in business all these years, and other caterers have come and gone.  The clientele (pharmaceutical reps) say my food has a "certain something" not found in the other caterers' food.

The Japanese describe that "certain something" as umami, best defined as the fifth taste, after the original four: sweet, salty, sour, bitter.  Basically, umami is the tongue's reaction to the amino acid L-glutamate, derived from vegetable or animal protein.  What this means in layman's terms, is it's the deep base flavor Southerners achieve in their cooking from adding fatty proteins such as bacon and pork, and it's the wonderful base flavor in Japanese and Chinese cooking that comes from anchovy or bean curd, and it's the butter in baked goods.  Still confused?  Open a can of green beans and taste them right from the can.  Yuk.  Now doctor them with umami --- chicken stock (or in my case, chicken base, as chef's don't use a lot of watery stock), and you'll immediately get the picture.  Umami makes or breaks anything you cook.  Our grandmothers didn't know about umami, the fifth taste.  But they knew a lot about cooking with love.

That being said, what did I take to the picnic?  Buttercrust Lemon Cheese Tart, and Penne with Roasted Porcini.  Both complete with umami.  But I'm one of those chefs who just thinks of it as LOVE!