Now matter how you cut it, the Sooners have provided an entertaining football season. The big 12 South is just good, one and all.

Umami

Umami is one of the five basic tastes sensed by specialized receptor cells present on the human
tongue.



Umami is a Japanese word meaning savory, a "deliciousness" factor deriving specifically from detection of the natural amino acid, glutamic acid, or glutamates common in meats, cheese, broth, stock, and other protein-heavy foods. The action of umami receptors explains why foods treated with monosodium glutamate (MSG) often taste "heartier".

Glutamate has a long history in cooking: it appears in Asian foods such as soy sauce and fish sauce, and in Italian food in parmesan cheese and anchovies. It also is directly available in monosodium glutamate (MSG).

from wikipedia


Unmami is known as the fifth flavor.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, Professor Kikunae Ikeda of Tokyo Imperial University was thinking about the taste of food: "There is a taste which is common to asparagus, tomatoes, cheese and meat but which is not one of the four well-known tastes of sweet, sour, bitter and salty."

It was in 1907 that Professor Ikeda started his experiments to identify what the source of this distinctive taste was. He knew that it was present in the "broth" made from kombu (a type of seaweed) found in traditional Japanese cuisine. Starting with a tremendous quantity of kombu broth, he succeeded in extracting crystals of glutamic acid (or glutamate). Glutamate is an amino acid, and is a building block of protein. Professor Ikeda found that glutamate had a distinctive taste, different from sweet, sour, bitter and salty, and he named it "umami". 100 grams of dried kombu contain about 1 gram of glutamate.

Professor Ikeda decided to make a seasoning using his newly-isolated glutamate. To be used as seasoning, glutamate had to have some of the same physical characteristics which are found, for example, in sugar and salt: it had to be easily soluble in water but neither absorb humidity nor solidify. Professor Ikeda found that monosodium glutamate had good storage properties and a strong umami or savoury taste. It turned out to be an ideal seasoning. Because monosodium glutamate has no smell or specific texture of its own, it can be used in many different dishes where it naturally enhances the original flavor of the food.

Paying for Groceries

Around 1966, my father came home to my mother and me, an infant. I was crying. My father asked my mother why I was crying. She said “We don’t have food to feed him”.

My father was a carpenter and in between jobs at the time.

He immediately went to the grocery store. He filled the basket with necessary items. He then found the manager of the store. He asked the manager to let him get home before he called the police. So I could eat.

The manager took him to the front and checked out his groceries. He asked my father to come back after he got the job. They would settle up then.

My father got the job. He went back to settle up with the manager. The manager asked him if he had the money. My father said “yes”, as he was getting it out to pay.

The manager stopped him saying “I don’t want your money, what I want is for you to help someone as I have helped you”.

A while back, my father told me this story. He said “Son, I have been paying for those groceries for a long time”.

I try to take his story and words to heart. I believe in paying it forward.

You never know when it may be you who is in need.

What color is family?

White, black, other. Pick all that apply.

Race, it can be quite confusing. Ethnic sociologist believe there no longer are any pure races. It is speculated, that if enough time passes, that all races will be homogenized. The color?... a very light tan.

Sounds healthy to me!

So what is a person to do if they are of mixed ancestry? Black father, white mother; oriental mother, black father; native american with mixed breed

caucasian. It is any ones guess! How do you classify yourself? What culture do you assimilate with? Do you risk acceptance or rejection?

Dewayne Johnson- african canadian samoan

If you label yourself, are you limiting yourself?

Is it that important?

If you live in a country, does that make you or label you. If your skin is light or dark, honey or olive, yellow or red, does it make a difference or change you????
Shelly Morningsong- dutch cheyenne

I pose these questions, because I don't know the answers.

Rosario Dawson- puerto rican afro cuban irish native american













My children are white, black and native american. In the end, they are my children and I see family not labels or colors.

The Young Martyr

Paul Delaroche 1855


This stunning piece speaks on many levels.