Eating is one of our greatest pleasures. When eating, flavor is not everything. All our senses become involved. Food tastes better when the color, shape, texture, and fragrance are appealing, and even better with stellar ambience. It's said that the human tongue can detect only four basic tastes: sweet, sour, bitter and salty, and that all tastes are combinations of these. A fifth taste, Umami, was identified in 1908 by Kikunae, Ikeda of Tokyo Imperial University and in recent years has been revisited. Both the word and the concept are Japanese, and in Japan are of some antiquity.
Umami is hard to translate, judging by the number of English words that have been suggested as equivalents, such as savory, essence, pungent, and deliciousness. It's often times associated with a feeling of perfect quality in a taste, or of some special emotional circumstance in which a taste is experienced. It is also said to involve all the senses, not just that of taste. There's more than a suggestion of a spiritual or mystical quality about the word. From the diverse seating arrangement, to the music, the lights, the visual effects, and the people who accompany you on each occasion.
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