Umami - a word and a restaurant

"Umami is the quasi-secret heart and soul of almost every braise, stew and soup." Michael Pollan

Back in 2012 my husband and I spent a couple of nights in the beautiful little French town of L'Isle sur la Sorgue and on our second night there we dined at this tiny little restaurant called Umami. The meal we had there was one of those supremely memorable ones that come along all too infrequently. We are going that way again this year so I thought to look and see if it was still operating. And it still is, but disaster - we are there on a Monday and Tuesday night, and guess what - it's closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. So we either have to give away the chance of going there, or maybe revisit the itinerary. I guess that could be done.

Below is a small gallery of three of the dishes we consumed that night:

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umami-2

umami-4

It is owned and run by a young French-Canadian couple. When we arrived it seemed to be empty and not very busy - but this was a misapprehension because every table was reserved and it quickly filled up. Still it gave me time to chat to the waitress about it a little bit.

Umami was a new word to me and so I asked and discovered that it is a recently discovered fifth taste - after sweet, sour, salt and bitter. Its discoverer - a Japanese scientist actually cooked up a 'secret' ingredient - MSG - to encapsulate it's qualities. Because Umami is basically what makes savoury food taste delicious. It's that little extra thing that makes food worthwhile - hence the name of the restaurant. Don't go heavy on the MSG though. Not good for you it has subsequently been suggested.

I've read a bit about it and the most interesting things I gleaned from the articles were that it is found in breast milk - one theory is that this is why we like it so much - and some of the best sources are Parmesan cheese and mushrooms.

So now I just have to look at the maps again and decide what to do about this very tempting restaurant.