Tag: gourmet
-
Umami
What is it? Umami (Japanese: from umai, ‘delicious’ and mi, ‘taste’) is one of the five basic tastes, along with sweet, salty, bitter and sour. In the early 20th century, Kikunae Ikeda, a Japanese chemistry professor, identified a particularly appealing taste common to certain foods. But this taste sensation didn’t fall into any of the recognised taste…
-
Lobster
Lobster is often considered to be the king of crustaceans and is thus an expensive delicacy. It has firm, white meat which is succulent and sweet. When raw it has a dark blue-green colour which turns a bright orange-pink when cooked. There are three main types of lobster: Canadian or American; European; Slipper or Squat…
-
-
Gravadlax
Gravadlax, also known as gravlax, is a Scandinavian dish consisting of fresh, raw salmon fillet marinated with salt, sugar and dill. Once cured, it’s sliced thinly. It originated as a means to preserve fish in the days before refrigeration. The fish was prepared with salt and dill and then buried in the ground. (‘Grav’…
-
Foie gras
Foie gras (French: ‘fatty liver’) is a luxury food that seriously divides opinions. It’s hard to think of any more controversial dish that you can eat without breaking the law (but we’ll come back to that below). Gourmets prize it as the last word in richness and subtlety of flavour. Animal rights activists condemn the…