Black Garlic

[mk05]

Originally Posted by markem

I've been talking to a friend who is an executive chef for a highly rated restaurant in Spokane (Clover). He says that black garlic is well known and difficult to pair for westerners as we do not have a refined enough palette. He recommends a bacon and spinach salad with a salty Brie.

That's (hopefully) not what he meant. As an Asian who transplanted to Oregon early, I understand both Eastern/Western palates and preferences innately. What I've found is that Americans do not have a taste for umami - it is the black hole in their palate. The concept was, and is, practically unknown to most here. The idea (and the taste) is so foreign, that the word literally does not exist in the English language.

The chef does know what he is talking about. Umami does well balanced with salty and fatty sweet. It would be passable with bacon and fresh baby spinach, which is another great example of umami hiding in plain sight. Bacon fat has an umami texture, as do cheese and spinach. What the chef is looking to do is introduce Asian umami (black garlic) by relating with known Western umami, so even if the taster has no idea, it makes sense subconsciously.