umami

Get the most out of your pantry by adding tons of ingredients that'll add umami to your dishes.

Koji is the mold that smells like grapefruit and makes miso, sake and soy sauce possible. American chefs are now experimenting with the fungi.

The smell of vanilla from an oaky bourbon — mixed with citrus oils and a bit of bitter complexity — is one of the greatest things about an old-fashioned. Its timeless formula existed even before the word “cocktail” came into being, and it's also the perfect canvas for improvisation from bartenders. More and more, umami and savory…

New Scientist reports that there's a new flavor we're able to detect on its own, joining the ranks of sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami (savory). Carbohydrate-dense foods like bread, pasta, potatoes and rice contribute their own unique flavor — recently dubbed "starchy." Sweet flavors were associated with shorter chains of sugar molecules before a team…

If you've clicked on this story thinking, "I don't like anchovies and pity the fool who uses either paste or fillets," let's have a quick pep talk. You love Caesar salad, and you crave pad thai in your sleep. Why? Because they taste good. And why do these beloved things all taste good? Umami, from anchovies, in…

Food writer and blogger Annelies Zijderveld enjoys a strong cup of tea and a cookbook. No, really, her new cookbook, Steeped, is filled with tea-infused recipes. When was the last time you brewed a cuppa to enjoy with dinner? Break out the loose-leaf and enjoy an extra layer of complexity in this delicious recipe for cauliflower…

You have a craving only one ingredient in your entire larder can satisfy: fish sauce, that wonderful fermented liquid that adds a signature punch to your favorite Asian dishes. Break out a bottle (handle carefully as that stuff is STRONG) — lots of seafood, pork, vegetables and noodles soak up the good stuff like they…

Craft beers have long been touted as great for pairing with hearty meals, but what happens when a classic ingredient in American cuisine — the mushroom — becomes part of the beer itself? In a word: awesomeness.While the little fleshy fungi aren't as pervasive an ingredient as say, chocolate or chilis, a surprising number of…

One is an Los Angeles-based burger chain with a focus on savory flavors, a devoted cult following and the recipient of a “Burger of the Year” award from GQ Magazine. The other is an Los Angeles-based ice cream chain with an equally devoted following, known for innovative flavors like Brown Butter Candied Bacon and Fried…

Umami Burger is opening its first New York location this Monday in Greenwich Village. The LA-based chain's NYC outpost will serve all its classic selections, as well as a couple of items unique to the location, like the duck patty. It'll also include a full bar and nearly 20 cocktails, along with several draught beers…

On several occasions we’ve written about the magic of umami, that mythic fifth taste coined in 1908 by Japanese doctor Kikunae Ikeda to describe the flavor seaweed broth. In general, the flavor is tied to the distinct and deeply pleasing “saltiness” found in many foods, particularly those found in East and Southeast Asia. These include…

“New York has some okay burgers,” says Umami Burger founder Adam Fleischman to New York restaurant critic Adam Platt in a 2,641 word profile of the Los Angeles burger chain that is poised to disrupt NYC’s Shake Shack–dominated grilled patty ecosystem. Having taste-tested Umami burgers on several occasions, including at the last two Googamooga festivals…

I was off miso soup for a while after a former roommate decided he was fat and threw himself into the self-invented "miso soup diet," consuming nothing but gallons of the stuff until he was "ripped." The whole apartment smelled like miso soup, which was really nice for a couple of days, then quickly moved…

Do not. Say "ew." I mean it. Don't look at an anchovy, or even at the anchovy option in the pizza place you're lucky enough to have serving up the hairy little fillets with any kind of disdain. Why? Because I know you love Caesar salad. And you crave pad thai in your sleep. I…

Have you every eaten something only to have a hard time describing the taste? What you may have been unable to describe is umami. Biologically speaking, your taste buds are equipped to experience four basic flavors: sweet, salty, sour and bitter. After many years of eating and research, scientists (and chefs) now add umami —…

If there is one thing that we can respect here at Food Republic, it's an obsessive approach to burger making. It took six months for James Beard–nominated Chef Tony Maws to finalize his ultimate burger recipe for Craigie on Main's bar menu. For a chef so committed to local and seasonal eating that the menu…

As you may have noticed, we are deeply into our burgers here at Food Republic. So far in our look at some of the best burgers this little world has to offer we've established our baseline for the best basic burger, we've gone ducky, and even tackled the patty vs. burger war. This week we…