is one of the proposed five basic tastes sensed by specialized receptor cells present on the human tongue.Sherry Seethaler, [LINK: http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/newsrel/science/sourtaste.asp] "UCSD-led Team Discovers How We Detect Sour Taste", University of California, San Diego, August 23, 2006. The same taste is also known as xi?nwèi () in Chinese cooking. Umami is a Japanese word meaning "savory" or "deliciousness" and thus applies to the sensation of savoriness, specifically to the detection of the natural amino acid, glutamic acid, or glutamates common in meats, cheese and other protein-heavy foods. The action of umami receptors explains why foods treated with monosodium glutamate (MSG) often taste "heartier". Inasmuch as it describes the flavor common to savory products such as meat, cheese, duck, and mushrooms, umami is similar to Brillat-Savarin's concept of osmazome, an early attempt to describe the main flavor

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