“Dashi is like the key actor in a movie,” says 83-year-old Chobei Yagi, whose 275-year-old store, Tokyo’s Yagicho Honten, specializes in katsuobushi and other dried foods. “But dashi always plays the supporting role, never the star.”
The most popular, multipurpose dashi is made with a combination of dried bonito flakes and konbu. The naturally occurring inosinic acid in katsuobushi and glutamic acid in konbu have a synergistic effect on flavor. “One plus one becomes three or more on the umami scale,” says Yagi.
—Sonoko Sakai writing in the Los Angeles Times about the complex, umami-packed base known as dashi, which provides the foundation for so much Japanese cuisine. Sakai’s piece ran in January, 2012.
from Longreads Blog » Longreads Blog http://blog.longreads.com/2015/07/10/done-getting-to-know-japanese-dashi-stock/
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