The Umami reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Umami

Umami is the name for the taste sensation produced by monosodium glutamate. This is one of the five basic tastes.

The name comes from umame (旨味 or うま味), the Japanese name for the taste sensation.

In English, the name of the taste is sometimes spelled umame to conform to romanization standards of Japanese, but umami is much more common, as, for example, in the title of the "Society for Research on Umami Taste" at http://www.iijnet.or.jp/srut/index_e.html.

The same taste is referred to as Xian Wei (鮮味) in Chinese cooking.

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