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Originally Posted by K-Wise
^ Fried rice has NO mushrooms! People don't add mushrooms to food for flavor! Just for substance! So that you think theres more food...but you're not getting full on shrooms! You just think you are 
Asta!! |
Au Contraire, on just about all counts. My fried rice generally has at least two, sometimes as many as five different kinds of mushrooms. While some (Chunked Portabella, f'rinstance) are there largely for texture, enoki is there for texture and presentation, and oysters, cloud ears, button and straw are there for flavor. You see, the problem is that there is no English word for the flavor of a mushroom. The Japanese word is <i>umami</i> and, along with salt, sweet, bitter, and sour, is one of the basic tastes. It's the taste of bullion without salt. In English, since we have no concept of the taste, we almost always perceive and describe it as a texture. It ain't.
Something to haunt your dreams, then...
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