Oooh Mummy, Can We Have Some Umami?

Not something likely to be said back home in Britain, where the word umami is still relatively unknown. But something a toddler might say in Japan, from where the word originates and where it means 'tasty' or 'flavoursome'. Surprisingly, many people still question the validity of the 'fifth flavour' today, even though we have long had scientific proof of the specialised receptor cells on our tongues that detect the carboxylate anion of glutamic acid and give rise to the meaty, brothy or savoury taste that is umami.

Founding father of gastronomy Brillat-Savarin came close to discovering umami almost two centuries ago when, in his iconic work Physiologie Du Goût (Physiology Of Taste), he discussed osmazome, describing it as "the most meritorious ingredient of all good soups", which "gives game and venison its peculiar flavour." And, recognising the pleasure it gave to those who remained blissfully unaware of its existence, added: "Osmazome, discovered after having been so long the delight of our fathers, may be compared to alcohol, which made whole generations drunk before it was simply exhibited by distillation."

Even three years ago, when I was at catering college, the word was virtually unspoken - confined to gastronomy blogs, the writings of Harold McGee and the odd conference of radical chefs. So imagine how surprised I was to hear that a whole section of a peak-time BBC evening TV show the other week had been devoted to the topic of umami. OK, so the shoppers who were interviewed still couldn't tell umami from sudoku. But it's a huge step forward, being discussed on a show with about 6m viewers. Enjoy!

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Nelson Mandela, Che Guevera, Gandhi And... Carrot Crew

"Jamie Oliver's lost sight of what's right."
Maybe, maybe not... but it sure looks like, when it comes to losing the plot, some schoolteachers
and ancillary staff have a far more serious problem than their schoolkids. Laugh or cry (or maybe both).

Many thanks to Kate Rudkins for kindly granting me permission to rehost and republish this video.
Visit Kate's YouTube site to see this and other videos in the series "This is Our Youth", written and directed by Nathaniel Barrett and Kate Rudkins and made by Eleven Film for Channel 4's "3 Minute Wonder".

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Seafood... Eat It!

The Brits may not be very fond of the fruits of the sea, as foodie blogger, author and globe-trotter Robin Majumdar asserted earlier this year, but seafood is absolutely fundamental to the cuisines of Spain.

It's hardly surprising - over three quarters of The Kingdom of Spain's population lives within 50 miles of the sea and, with the exceptions of Madrid, Seville and Zaragoza, all the major centres of population density are on the coast. Move Canberra to Alice Springs and Spain would demographically resemble Australia.

Of course when we talk about seafood and Spain, our thoughts turn to the northern coast line - to Galicia and The Basque Country and to Asturias and Cantabria in-between. But there's almost nowhere in Spain where fish and shellfish aren't an important part of the regional cuisine. Even in most of the landlocked autonomous communities we find river fish and crustaceans playing an important role. You get a good idea of the importance of seafood to the Spanish when you discover that the world's second largest fish market after Tsukiji in Tokyo is Mercamadrid, with a covered surface area of 42,000 m² and annual sales of 132m kilos of seafood. What's notable about that is that Madrid is over 300km from the sea!

When Spain celebrates something, it does so by building. The architectural traditions of the Basques, the Catalans and the Islamic conquerors of south and central Spain have brought some of the most spectacular structures to be found anywhere in Europe. Elsewhere in the world such excesses may be confined to palaces and grand houses of culture, celebrating monarchy and opera. In Spain, a stunning edifice of steel, glass and ceramics is just as likely to celebrate the cheese, the sausage and the shrimp.


In the city of València is just such a celebratory structure, standing proud against the skyline adjacent to La Lonja de la Seda, the ancient Silk Market. El Mercado Central de València is a stunning piece of Catalan modernist architecture, initiated in 1914 and opened fourteen years later. The market is an 8,000m² expanse of steel and glass decorated with typically colourful Valencian ceramic tiles. Built by architects Alejandro Soler March and Francisco Guardia Vial who trained in Barcelona with the iconic Lluís Domènech i Montaner, the art nouveau building even includes the colors of the Senyera regional flag (the base of the modern Aragonese, Catalan, Valencian and Balearic communities) in its windows.


A few weeks ago I visited central València for lunch at Restaurante Torrijos (more to come shortly). Having arrived an hour or so early, what better way to whet my appetite for the feast to come than to gaze upon some of the city's freshly caught aquatic residents at El Mercado Central. The seafood section of the market is vast, so I only captured a small part of what was on offer. Click on individual slides for descriptions of the seafood on display.

Thanks to Kike@ and birdbath for the structural photos of the market. All seafood stall photos by me.

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Thanks Guys

Thanks to the 194,141 people who looked at 348,185 pages on my blog since I began in August 2006 and especially to my 46 registered Google Followers. Much appreciation also to the 1,379,717 people who have visited my YouTube site since September 2006, my 170 regular video subscribers and the many thousands of people who have checked out the photo sets on my Flickr site (Flickr stats only just started recently). It's not always easy to find the spare time and motivation for blogging in-between the work shifts of a highly demanding day job, but you guys really do make it all worthwhile. Thank you.

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They Go Really Badly Together - Potato And Orange

Let's face it. We all know that when it comes to being the ultimate arbiter of taste, there's no-one to beat the French. There's cooking and there's classical cooking... and classical cooking at top level means French cooking. And when it comes to artistic brilliance on the plate - there's absolutely no competition. Well, leastways... that's what a Frenchman told me.

The other day I watched a hapless contender on British TV cooking show Masterchef: The Professionals stand in front of Michel Roux Jr. (he of the Michelin 2* Le Gavrôche) and have the audacity to knock up a dish in which pieces of orange were plated alongside potatoes. Quelle horreur! Quel dommage! Luckily, capital punishment has been abolished in France as well as Britain, or it might well have been Madame la Guillotine for the unfortunate contestant. Here's an edited version of the reaction.

Having recently hosted a round of They Go Really Well Together, my thoughts turned immediately to the prospect of They Go Really Badly Together. I'm not intending this to be a serious meme and I hope Martin Lersch won't take offence at my French colour co-ordinated version of his logo. But I simply couldn't resist inviting everyone to come up with dishes that successfully combine potato and orange.

There's one dish you are not allowed to submit and that's Ensalada Valenciana. Now I must point out that, just to be confusing, there are two different salads with this name. Once is a lettuce and pimento salad with olives, tomatoes and anchovies or other fish. The other - more relevant to this post - is a simple salad of potatoes, oranges and pimentos, with a light vinaigrette. You can find Ensalada Valenciana on the menu at many roadside cafés and restaurants near to where I live and work.

The dish was created about 500 years ago when, the orange-planting Moors having earlier been vanquished by James I of Aragón, the Conquistadors brought back the potato from the Americas. Recipes are kindly offered by Cook It Simply, Apple Pie, Patis, Pâté and the combination is noted on Spain-Barcelona. There are even some recipes that combine the two varieties of Ensalada Valenciana to produce a fish, orange and potato salad, such as these from Madreshaymasdeuna and from Elbocaito. Being relatively novel, I can understand why French chefs haven't heard of these dishes. It's quite a long way from València to Paris, and even further to London, so maybe the news didn't arrive yet.

Given the response I received to TGRWT #18, I'm sure there are chefs and foodies out there who can really crack this one by describing dishes they've cooked recently or experienced in restaurants, that will leave M. Roux with a good dollop of orange and potato on his head. I'm especially keen to hear about classics from non-European cuisines that combine potato and orange. Maybe there's something from one of the world's top non-European producers of both oranges and potatoes - China, India or the US? Suggestions by comment, please. Unless, of course, you really want to publish a post and send me a link by comment.

Please don't take the title "They Go Really Badly Together" literally and suggest saffron potato mash with kidney & orange velouté and pomegranate foam, thanks. Photo of Ensalada Valenciana and material for composite photo kindly provided by Jude of Apple Pie, Patis, Pâté.

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