Umami, a Taste by Any Other Name

By Rowan Jacobsen

I’VE ALWAYS STRUGGLED TO EXPLAIN to the uninitiated my weakness for certain foods. Raw oysters, for example. What do they taste like? Hard to say. I usually trot out some bromide about the essence of the sea, wet rocks at low tide, leaving my audience more skeptical than ever.

Then there are tea, anchovies, tomatoes, Gorgonzola — love ’em or leave ’em. I…