The Secret to a Great Tomato Salad Is in Your Pantry
More. Exactly.
What she was trying to name was the salad's umami, but how do you explain that concept to someone who has just discovered it? Or to someone who thinks it relevant only to pretentious foodies? I could have told her about the fish sauce in the dressing, but I would have been revealing a secret I wanted to hold on to a little longer.
Recipe: Tomato Salad With Dates
I have a few of those. Not quite secrets, but little imperceptible flavor boosters. A splash of soy sauce or black garlic in Bolognese. Anchovies melted into vegetable soup. Fish sauce stirred into a caramel for a tomato salad. To anyone watching, it could look like a bit of magic.
But there's a method to this. I'm chasing something that exists in the realm of sensation, a quality that doesn't readily announce its presence but still manages to make the food taste more, well … more like itself.
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