h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

maybe i'm slow and missed something but what is this 5th taste?? i mean the other four are bitter, salty, sweet and then sour....what is the description of the 5th one?? how do i know if i am using that taste or the other 4??
i am not being a smart arse, i am being serious and am just curious
monsy

monsy: got any MSG at home? Shake some into your hand, and lick it.

I guess this makes a bit of sense... MSG has typically been used to blend flavors together. But what this thing is saying is that the flavors become muted because your other taste receptors go dead when MSG is introduced. I'm not sure if that would be a good thing

I assumed that "umami" was the word that described the taste. And you know you're tasting it when whatever it is you're eating is not sweet, sour, salty or bitter.

ahhhh....i see where my confusion came from now...
i had msg quite awhile back and ended up with a nasty alergic reaction from it that caused me never to ever want to have anything to do with it again...
guess this means that i will just take your word for the flavour of the 5th sense ...
thank-you for not stoning me when i asked the question
monsy

No problem. Now I may ask my question . What is MSG?

I can't supply you with any other details apart from the fact that it's MonoSodiumGlutamate (and I may be very badly wrong on the spelling).
I would guess from the name that this substance is related to both sweet (gluten - i.e. sugar) and salty (sodium - i.e. salt). But I am quite happy to be proved wrong.
As a related question: can you buy bags of MSG from Oriental supermarkets in the UK?

I can't speak for the UK, but in the US, MSG is available in any supermarket under the brand name "Accent." This stuff was used in my home as a seasoning long before I knew what MSG was.

Wow, cool stuff! I ain't seen it anywhere in the UK

The other senses are localized on the tongue to a certain degree. Bitter in the back, sweet in the front, sour and salt on the sides, I believe. Is this glutamate detection localized as well?

Umami receptors, (which respond to some nucleotides and the amino acid glutamate), are scattered on the tongue and even a bit on the palate and aren't clustered. Umami is pupposed to be the "meaty" taste, like from mushroooms and (to state the obvious now), meat.

That's cool. So, when you get the "meaty" sensation from food it's because of umami. Makes sense.

So MSG activates the umami receptors?

Exactly
Funny how I remember this stuff from physiology which was just mentioned in passing and was never tested on but things I actually need to remember from that course.... entirely gone from my mind.

Thanks, and interestingly that happens to me to. The only problem is when you take the next course.