Hello,
Eating is a primary survival impulse with which we are born. When a baby is born, the sucking reflex produces pleasure in the lips and oral cavity, brings affection and nourishment. It was what Freud called "the first phase of libidinal evolution". From that moment on, we associate nourishment with emotions.
Taste, on the other hand, is the sensation produced by food or other substances on the palate. This sensation is determined 80% by the sense of smell and the remaining 20% by the palate and the tongue. That is why when a person has an obstructed nose, he/she feels that food has no taste.
The human tongue has about 10,000 taste buds; depending on their location on the tongue they have the ability to better detect certain types of stimuli or flavors and send that sensation to the brain and thus we perceive the flavors: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, acid, and umami.
Umami is a word that comes from the Japanese language and means "pleasant taste that we would call "savory". It is a subtle but lingering taste that is difficult to describe, provokes salivation and stimulates the throat, palate and back of the mouth. Umami enhances the flavor of a wide range of foods, especially in the presence of complementary aromas. An example is the taste given by sodium glutamate which is used to give that pleasant taste to different Asian food products.
May your food always have UMAMI
Thank you!
