Comments on: Umami In The West

By: Barbara

Barbara — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 04:43:24 +0000

Hello, Renu! Welcome to my blog, and thank you for posting a comment. I do hope you come back! (For future reference, though, you could have posted on the Meat Comes From Animals…post, because the email would have notified me and I would have read it and answered there. But no matter–you are here, and so am I!)

I have no problem with people from other cultures eating dogs or cats. I am not into the practice myself, because I generally am not of the belief that carnivore meat is all that tasty. I know that when you feed swine meat scraps, it can sometimes give their meat an off flavor that is not pleasant.

I really don’t care what animal people eat, so long as they treat it humanely while it lives, and kill it quickly and humanely at the end, with as little pain and fear as possible. Oh, and so long as the animal is not hunted to extinction or overfished to extinction, either.

Other than that–whatever someone wants to eat is fine with me.

That said–I am very fond of my cats and dogs as pets, and would probably be sad to see dead, skinned versions of cats and dogs in a market. I would be sad, but I would get over it.

Now–if someone were to decide that they needed to eat -my- cats–well, now, that would be a problem!

I am glad you enjoyed the essay–it still amazes me how far it has travelled!

By: renu

renu — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 19:31:37 +0000

hi barbara,
this is about your ‘meat-comes-from-animals’ post. i read it only right now.
i’m a vegetarian, from kerala, india. born a vegetarian, brought up a vegetarian, tried to turn a non-veg for sometime (as part of teenage rebellion), found out there are better ways to rebel other than doing something you never enjoyed and turned back vegetarian. (but,i eat eggs and love them).

it was a great article. i too really believe in what you said. even here, i find similar responses. especially with regards to the meat-eating habits of people from other cultures. one day, i was having lunch in a restaurant with some staunch non-veg friends. as usual here, some started teasing me for my vegetarian habit (its quite usual and i’m also quite used to handling the comments). then, i started describing the meat-eating habits of people from some parts of india, who love dog meat.

suddenly, these same friends who were teasing me for not eating something that i hated, started to protest. they couldn’t stomach the idea of eating dog meat !

my question is, if you can eat meat of one kind of animal, then what’s the problem with other people eating the meat of other animals ?

and, there are a lot of staunch non-vegetarians in kerala who would nauseate when seeing a roasted chicken or turkey in the western style.

well, its quite interesting !

By: Barbara

Barbara — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 18:25:43 +0000

Richard–that sounds fabulous! Reduction is always a good way to concentrate flavors, but I think it does a particular bit of magic on umami.

By: Richard Clark

Richard Clark — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 18:05:14 +0000

Reading your Umami notes led me to cook a favorite umami-rich treat this weekend — Italian sausages with Porcini mushrooms (dried, reconstituted).

The recipe involves browning the sausages in a little oil, then adding red wine and reducing that to nothing, then adding the porcini mushrooms and soaking liquid and reducing that to nothing again. The sausages turn mahogany and develop an amazingly flavorful outer skin, partly salty and immensely rich with the umami flavor.

Now if I can take the time to write this up at LJ…

By: Barbara

Barbara — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 12:25:18 +0000

Lindy–I figured you meant “tapas!”

I always liked Bloody Marys made with equal parts Clamato and V-8 with a dash of Tabasco and Worchestershire sauce…now, I have a hint as to why. I usually grossed people out drinking them, but well, they always tasted more nutritive than alcoholic….

The brain does require amino acids to function, so maybe that was my instinctive reasoning.

Or, maybe it just tasted good.