Umami is a universal accepted word that is one of the five basic tastes. Most don't know that there is such taste to describe it. It literally means savory. To Filipinos, it is "malinamnam". It was first discovered by a Japanese professor Kikunae Ikeda and described it as "umai" meaning delicious and "mi" meaning taste thus the word umami.
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| One of the participating school |
What food gives us this particular taste? Glutamate is the source of anything that we taste as savory. Its sources ripe tomatoes, mushrooms,cheeses and more. Most don't realize that the humans first encounter with umami was breast milk.
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| Umami Bento Meal entry |
Since Ajinomoto is made from purely glutamate crystals, Ajinomoto hosted the 4th Umami Culinary Challenge. The participants are from different educational institutions from all over the country. The students created their own umami bento meals and umami Fiipino dishes.
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| Cooking demonstration |
To identify for ourselves the umami taste, I got the opportunity to observe a cooking demonstration using the right source of glutamate in the ingredients. Using salmon cooked in coconut extract and olive oil with mushrooms, I was able to find out that umami was really the taste that I grown to like for quite a long time.
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| Various participating schools |
The purpose of the event is not only to promote the use of Ajinomoto products but also to promote proper food nourishment and to showcase the culinary students' potential. The 4th Ajinomoto Umami Culinary Challenge was held at SMX Convention Center last February 2, 2013.
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| The winning participant |
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