#093
Sens03: Umami
Your kiss so sweet
Your sweat so sour
Sometimes I’m thinking that I love you
But I know it’s only lust
Gang of Four – Damaged Goods
O lado final deste triangular império dos sentidos representa algo mais intangível, um je ne sais pas quoi relacionado com o sabor e ao qual os japoneses convencionaram apelidar de 旨味, umami, um quinto elemento do paladar que se junta assim aos outros quatro: ácido, doce, amargo e salgado e que foi descoberto pelo professor Kikunae Ikeda e comunicado à comunidade cientifica a 25 de julho de 1908. Mas só foi reconhecido oficialmente nos anos 2000, após se identificarem os específicos receptores (mGluR4) para o aminoácido glutamato, principal representante do umami nas papilas humanas.
Quando era pequenino lembro-me de ver um frasco de Aji No Moto, glutamato monossódico industrial (MSG), durante muito tempo vilificado lá em casa. E com alguma razão. Temos ao longo da história culinária tido acesso a intensificadores de sabor mais interessantes: garum, Parmigiano-Reggiano, nam pla, XO, para dar só uns exemplos na lista de apetrechos com que nos munimos à procura desse alusivo “outro” elemento que compõe a dinâmica sensorial do palato.
Depois veio a vida. Nessa noite levaram-me a cear ao Leão. Tenho ainda a memoria dos bifes no paladar da saudade — bifes, sei porque supponho, como hoje ninguem faz ou eu não como. E tudo se me mixtura — infancia vivida a distancia, comida saborosa de noite, scenario lunar, Verlaine futuro e eu presente — numa diagonal confusa, num espaço falso entre o que fui e o que sou.
Fernando Pessoa – Livro do Desassossego
Então e uma playlist dedicada a tudo o que fica por dizer e explicar num sabor? Quando a música nos passa a ser servida temperada por um algoritmo que foi “entendendo” o nosso “gosto” e atendendo assim às nossas necessidades sonoras talvez este exercício não seja assim tão descabido. Num mundo em que se fala de slow cooking enquanto se emborca demasiada fast food as escolhas a nível de “consumo musical” podem muito bem ser analisadas numa destas m4we.
Escolhi por isso tasty morsels, de um cardápio bem universal e amplamente recheado de yumminess, onde começo com Ferkat Al Ard que em Oghneya, décima nona publicação da Habibi Funk (as edições da editora alemã estão constantemente aqui representadas de tão boas e sui generis que são) canta este Lahnon Lemra’ati Wa Beladi, “uma sintonia dos tempos em dor”, coisa para pôr logo qualquer apurado palato à prova e onde acabo com Two Shots a serem botados abaixo nas goelas de Wanda Jackson com ajuda de Elle King e Joan Jett.
Nas minhas mais recentes façanhas de agricultor fui plantando um sem fim de árvores, onde em cada vala depositava uma seca bosta de vaca para ficar a “temperar” as raizes, como se fosse cubo Knorr para uma Natureza em busca de rega, um sorriso escarrapachado nos lábios e a sensação de estar mais perto de Deus… a Promenade Oblique gravada pelos Limiñanas com Laurent Garnier a ribombar o silencio do campo mas não sem que os Bush Tetras respondessem com You Taste Like the Tropics. Se os Roxy Music com Bitter-Sweet ou os CHAI com Salty, se a Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band com Sour & Sweet / Lemon In The Honey ou os Shorty Long com Burnt Toast and Black Coffee são petit fours de óbvia insinuação e taxonomia o mesmo já não se pode dizer de Unity Purity Occasional dos Stereolab ou de Cristina (Beleza É Fundamental) dos Roquivários. Mas nestas coisas do céu-da-boca tanto tentei ser óbvio, escolhendo os cmyk! com Umami mas na oxigeusiana contrapartida de eleger Somi e Gregory Porter a invocarem que Love Tastes Like Strawberries.
Cientistas na Bélgica decidiram testar os participantes de uma prova de cervejas. O que as cobaias não sabiam era que a cerveja nunca mudava. Cada vez que recebiam uma cerveja “nova” para provar, era, na verdade, exatamente a mesma pils que haviam acabado de experimentar, a única diferença era a música que iam ouvindo. Ou seja: a primeira cerveja foi provada sem música. Depois com vários gêneros musicais, canções da Disney, mais leves e divertidas, pop, punk, evoluindo para coisas com graves profundos e ressonantes. Os resultados mostraram que enquanto se ouvia música mais leve, o sabor da cerveja era registrado como sendo mais doce, enquanto sob influencia de músicas mais pesadas as cervejas foram avaliadas como sendo mais amargas e mais fortes em álcool.
Estamos aqui perante um caso de sinestesia, produção de duas ou mais sensações sob a influência de uma só impressão, bem demonstrado pela mega-trippy Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band e o tema Jazz, Delicious Hot, Disgusting Cold editado em Gorilla, album de estreia de 1967. Os Bonzos já cá passaram nestas escolhas mas o que ficou por dizer é que eles eram tão venerados pelos músicos mais sérios que a lista de convidados ao longo dos anos inclui nomes como Eric Clapton, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Leon Williams, John Parry, Raymond Lewitt, Eric Idle, Sydney “Big Sid” Nicholls, James “Jim Strobes” Chambers, Bob Kerr, Dave Clague, Joel Druckman, “Borneo” Fred Munt, Chalky Chalkey, Dennis Cowan, Aynsley Dunbar ou Jim Capaldi entre muitos outros. Ainda conseguiram reunir-se três vezes (em 1972, 1988 e 2006) mas um dos fundadores, Neil Innes (que depois viria a formar os Rutles, uma spoof dos Beatles) conseguiria zangar-se de tal forma com todos os seus colegas que estes viriam a formar o grupo Three Bonzos And A Piano.
Fricot
Fried clams
Fish cakes
Pi des lobster rolls
Pets de soeurs
Dip aux palourdes
Poutine râpée, poutine à trous
Non, nos poutines ont pas de fromage
Pi pas de gravy
D’la mélasse
Su’ des ti buns
Des patates
Plus de patates
Viande salée, crêpe râpée
Clam chowder, garlic finger
Pi d’la râpure
Pi des ployes
But ça c’est juste si tu viens d’Edmundston
Pas d’épices
Juste du sel
Pas d’épices
Juste du sel
Pi un ti peu de sarriette
Lisa LeBlanc – Le Menu Acadien
Uma das minhas preferidas sobremesas portuguesas é logicamente o pudim de Abade de Priscos, carradas de gemas em macia untuosidade inferida pela gordura de presunto. Meus Deus, será que a dupla Billy Jones & Ernest Hare tem fundamento ao perguntarem Does the Spearmint Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight? Ou estará Yvonne Elliman a fazer um passe descaradamente sexual com o pedido de Casserole Me Over?
O mais engraçado disto tudo é que eu que nem gosto de mencionar o nome da mais conhecida plataforma de streaming (desculpem-me mas não aguento mesmo) não pude evitar de partilhar aqui uma campanha muito engraçada que mostra como se pode andar à volta das nossas escolhas musicais sem se perceber que acabou por ser tudo mais ou menos manipulado: https://www.lbbonline.com/news/spotify-asks-what-does-music-taste-like-with-flavour-of-songs-algorithm. Vejam que vale a pena.
Algumas opções preterem os sólidos pelos líquidos: Brenda Ray e Sweet Sweet Wine enquanto que da sensação australiana Donny Benet preparei um Negroni Summer. Mas podia igualmente ter ido buscar Cheese de Stromae ou Grana Padano dos Jantar, banda prog-rock proveniente de Zagreb. E sabem porque é que não fiz tal coisa? Porque decidi deixar aqui mais umas pistas de pesquisa, desta feita sobre como a musica até pode alterar a nossa percepção do sabor dos queijos, para ver em: https://www.hellofresh.co.uk/grocery-delivery/songs-that-change-the-flavour-of-cheese.
Tried to amend my carnivorous habits
Made it nearly seventy days
Losin’ weight without speed, eatin’ sunflower seeds
Drinkin’ lots of carrot juice and soakin’ up rays
But at night I’d have these wonderful dreams
Some kind of sensuous treat
Not zucchini, fettuccine or Bulgar wheat
But a big warm bun and a huge hunk of meat
Cheeseburger in paradise
Heaven on earth with an onion slice
Not too particular, not too precise
I’m just a cheeseburger in paradise
Heard about the old time sailor men
They eat the same thing again and again
Warm beer and bread they said could raise the dead
Well it reminds me of the menu at a holiday Inn
But times change, sailors these days
When I’m in port I get what I need
Not just Havanas or bananas or daiquiris
But that American creation on which I feed
Cheeseburger in paradise
Medium rare with mustard be nice
Heaven on earth with an onion slice
I’m just a cheeseburger in paradise
I like mine with lettuce and tomato
Heinz 57 and French fried potatoes
Big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer
Well good God almighty which way do I steer for my
Cheeseburger in paradise
Makin’ the best of every virtue and vice
Worth every damn bit of sacrifice to get a
Cheeseburger in paradise
I need a cheeseburger in paradise
I’m just a cheeseburger in paradise
Jimmy Buffett – Cheeseburger In Paradise
Espero que esta lista vos abra o apetite. De faca afiada em punho descasquem uns dentes de alho. Apanhem o azeite. Depois disto só se vai lá começando com um refogado assim bem old school. Tenham um saboroso fim de semana.
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
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Your kiss so sweet
Your sweat so sour
Sometimes I’m thinking that I love you
But I know it’s only lust
Gang of Four – Damaged Goods
The final side of this triangular empire of the senses represents something a tad more intangible, a certain je ne sais pas quoi related to taste and which the Japanese have agreed to call 旨味, umami, a fifth element of taste that thus joins all other four: acid, sweet, bitter and salty and that was discovered by Professor Kikunae Ikeda and communicated to the scientific community on July 25, 1908. But it was only officially recognised in the 2000s, after identifying the specific receptors (mGluR4) for the amino acid glutamate, the main representative of umami in the human papillae.
Being a kid I remember seeing a bottle of Aji No Moto, industrial monosodium glutamate (MSG), for a long time vilified at home. And with some reason. Throughout culinary history, we have had access to more interesting flavour intensifiers: garum, Parmigiano-Reggiano, nam pla, XO, to give just a few examples in the list of paraphernalia with which we equip ourselves in search of that allusive “other” element that makes up the sensory dynamics of our palate.
Depois veio a vida. Nessa noite levaram-me a cear ao Leão. Tenho ainda a memoria dos bifes no paladar da saudade — bifes, sei porque supponho, como hoje ninguem faz ou eu não como. E tudo se me mixtura — infancia vivida a distancia, comida saborosa de noite, scenario lunar, Verlaine futuro e eu presente — numa diagonal confusa, num espaço falso entre o que fui e o que sou.
Fernando Pessoa – Livro do Desassossego
So what about a playlist dedicated to everything that remains to be said and explained in a flavour? When music is served to us seasoned by an algorithm that has “understood” our “taste” so to meet all our sonic needs, perhaps this exercise is not so unreasonable. In a world where people talk about slow cooking while gulping down too much fast food, the choices in terms of “music consumption” could very well be examined in one of these m4we.
For all this I chose some tasty morsels, from a well universal menu widely filled with loads of yumminess, where I start with Ferkat Al Ard that in Oghneya, nineteenth publication by Habibi Funk (the pressings from this German publisher are constantly represented here maybe because of their uniqueness) sings Lahnon Lemra’ati Wa Beladi, “a tuning of the times hurts” he sings, something to put any discerning palate to the test as I end up with Two Shots being thrown down Wanda Jackson’s throat with a little help of friends Elle King and Joan Jett.
In my most recent exploits as a farmer, I planted countless trees, where in each ditch I deposited a dry cow dung to “season” the roots, as if it were a Maggi cube for a Nature in search of water, a wide smile on the lips and the feeling of being closer to God… the Promenade Oblique recorded by the Limiñanas with Laurent Garnier rumbling the silence of the countryside but not without the Bush Tetras responding with You Taste Like the Tropics. If Roxy Music with Bitter-Sweet or CHAI with Salty, if Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band with Sour & Sweet / Lemon In The Honey or Shorty Long with Burnt Toast and Black Coffee are petit fours of obvious insinuation and taxonomy the same cannot be said of Unity Purity Occasional by Stereolab or Cristina (Beleza É Fundamental) by Roquivários. But in some of these roof-of-my-mouth tinglings I tried really hard to be obvious, choosing cmyk! with Umami but in the oxygeusian counterbalance of electing Somi and Gregory Porter to invoke that Love Tastes Like Strawberries.
Scientists in Belgium decided to test participants in a beer tasting. What the test subjects didn’t know was that the beer never changed. Each time they were given a “new” beer to try, it was actually the exact same pils they had just tried, the only difference being the music they were listening to. That is: the first beer was tasted without music. Then with various musical genres, Disney songs, lighter and more fun, pop, punk, evolving into things with deep and resonant bass. The results showed that while listening to lighter music, the beer taste was recorded as being sweeter, while under the influence of heavier music the beers were evaluated as being more bitter and stronger in alcohol.
Here we are facing a case of synesthesia, the production of two or more sensations under the influence of a single impression, well demonstrated by the mega-trippy Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and the theme Jazz, Delicious Hot, Disgusting Cold put out in Gorilla, their debut album from 1967. The Bonzos have already been here but what was left unsaid is that they were so venerated by the most serious musicians that the guest list over the years includes names like Eric Clapton, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Leon Williams , John Parry, Raymond Lewitt, Eric Idle, Sydney “Big Sid” Nicholls, James “Jim Strobes” Chambers, Bob Kerr, Dave Clague, Joel Druckman, “Borneo” Fred Munt, Chalky Chalkey, Dennis Cowan, Aynsley Dunbar or Jim Capaldi among many others. They still managed to meet three times (in 1972, 1988 and 2006) but one of the founders, Neil Innes (who would later form the Rutles, a Beatles spoof) would get so angry with all his colleagues that they would go on to form the group Three Bonzos And A Piano.
Fricot
Fried clams
Fish cakes
Pi des lobster rolls
Pets de soeurs
Dip aux palourdes
Poutine râpée, poutine à trous
Non, nos poutines ont pas de fromage
Pi pas de gravy
D’la mélasse
Su’ des ti buns
Des patates
Plus de patates
Viande salée, crêpe râpée
Clam chowder, garlic finger
Pi d’la râpure
Pi des ployes
But ça c’est juste si tu viens d’Edmundston
Pas d’épices
Juste du sel
Pas d’épices
Juste du sel
Pi un ti peu de sarriette
Lisa LeBlanc – Le Menu Acadien
One of my favorite portuguese desserts is, of course, the Abade de Priscos pudding, loads of egg yolks in a soft unctuousness inferred by it’s secret ham fat. Good God, are Billy Jones & Ernest Hare right when they ask Does the Spearmint Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight? Or is by any chance Yvonne Elliman making an unabashedly sexual request with a title like Casserole Me Over?
The funniest thing about all of this is that I, who don’t even like to mention the name of the best known streaming platform (sorry but I really can’t stand it) couldn’t help but share here a very funny campaign that shows how one can go around our musical choices without realizing that they turn out to be more or less manipulated: https://www.lbbonline.com/news/spotify-asks-what-does-music-taste-like-with-flavour-of-songs-algorithm. See this, it’s worthwile.
Some options prefer liquids to solids: Brenda Ray and Sweet Sweet Wine while Australian sensation Donny Benet prepared a Negroni Summer. But he could also have picked up Cheese from Stromae or Grana Padano from Jantar, a prog-rock band from Zagreb. And do you know why I didn’t do such a thing? Because I decided to give you some more research, this time on how music can even change our perception in how cheese tastes, to see at: https://www.hellofresh.co.uk/grocery-delivery/songs-that -change-the-flavour-of-cheese.
Tried to amend my carnivorous habits
Made it nearly seventy days
Losin’ weight without speed, eatin’ sunflower seeds
Drinkin’ lots of carrot juice and soakin’ up rays
But at night I’d have these wonderful dreams
Some kind of sensuous treat
Not zucchini, fettuccine or Bulgar wheat
But a big warm bun and a huge hunk of meat
Cheeseburger in paradise
Heaven on earth with an onion slice
Not too particular, not too precise
I’m just a cheeseburger in paradise
Heard about the old time sailor men
They eat the same thing again and again
Warm beer and bread they said could raise the dead
Well it reminds me of the menu at a holiday Inn
But times change, sailors these days
When I’m in port I get what I need
Not just Havanas or bananas or daiquiris
But that American creation on which I feed
Cheeseburger in paradise
Medium rare with mustard be nice
Heaven on earth with an onion slice
I’m just a cheeseburger in paradise
I like mine with lettuce and tomato
Heinz 57 and French fried potatoes
Big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer
Well good God almighty which way do I steer for my
Cheeseburger in paradise
Makin’ the best of every virtue and vice
Worth every damn bit of sacrifice to get a
Cheeseburger in paradise
I need a cheeseburger in paradise
I’m just a cheeseburger in paradise
Jimmy Buffett – Cheeseburger In Paradise
I hope this list wets your apetite. Handling a sharp knife peel some garlic cloves. Get the olive oil. After all this you can only get anywhere with some good old school braising. Have a tasty weekend.
#staysafe #musicfortheweekend
Ferkat Al Ard – Lahnon Lemra’ati Wa Beladi
Steve Jansen – Pieces Cancelled ft. Anja Garbarek
Donny Benet – Negroni Summer
Thomas Oliemans – For me Formidable & Formidable
Julie London – A Taste Of Honey
Meitei – Tōkaidō
Badi Assad – Spicy Moments
Bush Tetras – You Taste Like the Tropics
Khruangbin & Leon Bridges – B-Side
Brenda Ray – Sweet Sweet Wine ft. Prince Far I
Guy Cuevas – Obsession (The Paris Version Radio Edit) ft. Grégory Louis & Robert Benjamin
Tom Jones – Sugar, Sugar
Lisa LeBlanc – Le Menu Acadien
Balaphonics – Spicy Boom Boom
Shorty Long – Burnt Toast and Black Coffee
Roquivários – Cristina (Beleza É Fundamental)
Ohio Express – Yummy Yummy Yummy
Ciclone – Delícia
Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band – Sour & Sweet / Lemon In The Honey
The Limiñanas et Laurent Garnier – Promenade Oblique
Roxy Music – Bitter-Sweet
Stereolab – Unity Purity Occasional
Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band – Jazz, Delicious Hot, Disgusting Cold
Barney Bigard Sextet – Sweet Marijuana Brown
Isaac Hayes – Wonderful
Billy Jones & Ernest Hare – Does the Spearmint Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight
Kit Sebastian – Yeter
Cosmic Analog Ensemble – La Grande Bellezza
CHAI – Salty
cmyk! – Umami
Crazy P – Barefooted (Soulphiction’s Roller Skating Mix)
Stephane deschezeaux – Time For Joy (The BankerBeats Remix)
Somi – Love Tastes Like Strawberries ft. Gregory Porter
Majid Soula – A Kem Gegh A Tamurt
Yvonne Elliman – Casserole Me Over
Ménélik Wossenachew – Tezeta
You’ll Never Get to Heaven – Setting Sun
Harpreet Bansal – Parvat; III. Bhimpalasi (Arr. Jon Øivind Ness)
Lucky Stereo – Troubles
Wanda Jackson ft. Elle King and Joan Jett – Two Shots