Web Development by Alistair Robinson

Not Paris or Venice – I took Ann to Glasgow to celebrate her birthday. It was a weekend of appetite and passion and curiosity, for which Glasgow is – despite the Edinburger prejudices – the perfect environment.
I chose a hotel called the Kirklee (here’s a nice satellite image)

It’s one house in a very odd red sandstone serpentine terrace in one of the loveliest parts of the West End. It was designed by David Barclay in 1902, so it’s contemporary with Mackintosh, whose art nouveau influence can be seen in the stained glass. Otherwise it’s more traditionally Edwardian, something the proprietors of the hotel make a big thing of, though I can’t say they’ve succeeded very convincingly: there are too many … read on »

It hadn’t occurred to me that savouriness was an identifiable taste that savoury foods had in common. Professor Kikunae Ikeda was led to the discovery of glutamate, and the invention of monosodium glutamate, by the idea that foods that are not sweet, sour, bitter or salty actually share another taste: savouriness, or umami. He said:
There is a taste which is common to asparagus, tomatoes, cheese and meat but which is not one of the four well-known tastes of sweet, sour, bitter and saltyhttp://www.glutamate.org/media/glutamate.htm
This all happened a hundred years ago, so why did nobody tell me before? At a young age we are taught about sweet, sour, bitter and salty, but I don’t recall being told about umami. Anyway, it must … read on »