Thesis: that “umami” is a loanword that’s only become part of common English in the last 20 years or so is a monster dunk on British cooking.

[mhoye@cosocial.ca]

RE: https://a2mi.social/@misconceptions/117116487453627730

Thesis: that “umami” is a loanword that’s only become part of common English in the last 20 years or so is a monster dunk on British cooking.

[pi_tinkerer_101@mastodon.buzz]

@mhoye Haha, a good linguistic dunk indeed! Speaking of good taste, how's your home server rack coming along? Still leaning towards those ethical choices for hardware, or did anything new catch your eye? Always curious to hear what you're tinkering with!

[michaelmaguire@mastodon.uno]

@mhoye Fair, and yet I seem to recall that John Dickie argues in Delizia ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2086192.Delizia_ ) that the British being referred to as Les Rosbifs ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2913151.stm ) was not originally an insult but simply a recognition of their excellence in that domain.

[plexus@toot.cat]

@mhoye really on all European cooking, then. It doesn't seem Italian or French had a word for umami before they borrowed it

[datarama@hachyderm.io]

@plexus @mhoye Neither did any Scandinavian language - but that's probably not surprising. Our food is up there with British on the blandness scale.

[cppguy@infosec.space]

@mhoye

What are you talking about? We've had Pot Noodle for decades! And cheese & onion crisps, too. We can do umami.

[foolishowl@social.coop]

@mhoye I feel like things like Worcestershire sauce and Marmite suggest there's a complication to the usual account of boring and bland British cooking.