【精英翻譯】的部落格

精英翻譯轉自https://paper.udn.com/papers.php?pname=POH0054

Mushrooms, a good, strong cheese, and Mom's chicken soup. What do these things have in common? Umami! We generally describe foods using one of the four words sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. But there is a fifth taste, harder to define than the others: umami. The word is sometimes translated from Japanese into English as "savory," but this doesn't quite explain what umami is.

香菇、味道濃烈的好起司，還有媽媽煮的雞湯。這些東西有什麼共同點？那就是「Umami 鮮味」！我們通常會以甜、鹹、酸與苦的其中一個字來描述食物。但還有一個比其他四味更難定義的第五味：鮮味。這個日文字有時翻為英文的「savory」（譯註：中譯為「美味」），但仍不太能解釋鮮味的意思。

Let's say you make a soup. You cook with onions, garlic and spices, but when you take a sip, your soup is rather bland. What do you do? You add a pinch of AJI-NO-MOTO (monosodium glutamate, or MSG), and suddenly all the flavors come alive. What is
going on here? Just like magic, glutamate allows us to taste umami. It makes ingredients taste like a stronger version of themselves!

以煮湯打比方。你用洋蔥、大蒜和香料烹煮，但你試喝一口時，會覺得湯頭有點平淡。你會怎麼做呢？你會加一小撮的「味精」（穀氨酸鈉或簡稱MSG），所有風味就會頓時活潑起來。這是怎麼回事呢？因為味精就像施展魔法一樣，讓我們嚐到鮮味。讓所有食材的味道變得更強烈！

A ripening tomato illustrates this very well. When it is still growing, a tomato is green and not very tasty (though some people love to slice and fry them). But as it turns red, the amount of glutamate increases, and the fruit becomes juicy and delicious. Other foods, such as Parmesan cheese (the kind the Italians put on their spaghetti), also contain naturally high levels of glutamate. In short, if something tastes full and rich on your tongue, you are probably experiencing umami!

逐漸成熟的番茄是最佳示範。番茄仍在成長階段時，呈綠色而且不太好吃（雖然某些人喜歡切片與油炸綠番茄）。但蕃茄轉紅時，穀氨酸鈉的含量會增加，番茄開始變得多汁可口。而像帕瑪森起司（義大利人加在義大利麵上的起司）等其他食物，亦含有天然的高單位穀氨酸鈉。簡而言之，如果某種食物在你舌頭上出現豐富濃醇的味道，就很有可能體驗到鮮味！