The Road To Umami, Via San Francisco-Style Garlic Noodles

Welcome back, fine readers. We’ve hit December of 2020! This has been one of the weirdest and most stressful years of my life. I’m thankful for a lot of things, though. I’m extremely lucky to be in the position I’m in. At home, warm and safe, writing about food for all of you. Here’s hoping 2021 takes the pressure off many who aren’t so fortunate.

Anyways, what I wanted to talk about today is the mysterious notion of umami. What’s umami, you may be asking? Well, you know the four major tastes, right? Salty, sweet, sour and bitter. Well, back in the early 1900’s, a Japanese chemist named Kikunae Ikeda theorized that there is in fact a FIFTH taste. It’s the taste and mouthfeel of savouriness. The term umami was coined by combining umai, or delicious with mi, or taste.

It’s that almost indescribable taste of huge flavour. When something tastes bigger and bolder than it is. Think about cooked meats, flavourful broths, mushrooms, soy sauce, Parmesan cheese. These things are savoury and bold. They make your mouth water just thinking about them.

Foods that are very umami are often high in glutamates. So, the oft-maligned MSG is a huge source of umami. Of course, you’ll find more MSG in a tomato or a small bag of Doritos than you will in the average Chinese take-out dish. So, don’t be racist, and respect that MSG. It’s delicious.

To truly understand the properties of umami, you need to make a dish that highlights it. And that’s where today’s recipe comes in. San Francisco-style garlic noodles are an absolute umami bomb. They’re so savoury and delicious. But you’d be surprised how quickly the dish comes together and how few ingredients there are for such huge depth of flavour. Such is the power of umami.

San Francisco-style garlic noodles are a Vietnamese-American side dish, often served with garlic crab or shrimp. They date back to about 1970-71, and originate from the Outer Sunset neighborhood, but there are many shops that claim to be the originator. Wherever they came from, these fusion-y noodles take umami-packed ingredients from many cultures, creating something so much greater than the sum of its parts.

This is in no way the definitive recipe. There’s about a million different ways to make this dish, but this one hits all the right umami notes for me. I hope it will for you, too.

One quick note about this dish. It comes together SO FAST. You need to have everything ready to go before you start cooking. Your garlic should be chopped, your sauce measured and combined, your cheese grated. Woe will be you if you dally.

I’ve waxed poetic enough, so I’ll just say this: no dish both under-promises and over-performs than these humble noodles. Let’s get cooking.

San Francisco-Style Garlic Noodles

Ingredients:

• 1.5 bulbs of garlic, cloves separated, peeled and finely minced
• 71g (5 tbsp) butter
• 30mL (1/8 cup) soy sauce
• 30mL (1/8 cup) oyster sauce
• 15mL (1 tbsp) Worcestershire sauce
• 5mL (1 tsp) fish sauce
• 2.5mL (1/2 tsp) sesame oil
• 2.7g (1 tsp) Korean chili powder
• 454g Chinese egg noodles
• 226g (8oz.) Parmesan cheese, finely grated on a Microplane grater
• 1-2 green onions, dark green parts only, sliced thinly on a bias

Method:

1. Put a large pot of water on to boil. This is one of the few times you DO NOT want to salt the water, as many of the other ingredients are quite salty.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the soy sauce, oyster sauce, Worcestershire sauce, fish sauce, sesame oil and chili powder. Set aside, within reach. Add the noodles to the boiling water and cook 3-4 minutes.
3. In a large, heavy-bottomed sauté pan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and gently cook until aromatic, 1-2 minutes.
4. Add the sauce mixture, and reduce the heat under the pan to as low as possible. Transfer the noodles to the pan directly from the pot, using a spider or wire basket strainer. You want some of that cooking water to go with them. Toss and stir to coat them in the sauce.
5. Add the Parmesan cheese and turn off the heat. Mix well, drizzling in a bit more cooking water if the sauce breaks or seems too thick. Taste for seasoning, adding salt only if necessary.
6. Turn the noodles out into a serving bowl and garnish with the green onions.

You simply won’t be able to believe the depth of flavour obtainable from such humble ingredients until you try this dish. It shows that umami may be the most powerful taste. To understand umami is to understand how to increase the depth of flavour in nearly any savoury dish. And the first step in understanding umami, I believe, is San Francisco-style garlic noodles.

By sneaking in soy sauce, tomato paste, a fermented fish product or Parmesan cheese to an already savoury dish, you take the great to the sublime. You don’t need to feature these ingredients. They can be background notes that set the whole dish off. You can’t fathom how big a difference a few drops of Worcestershire sauce can make in a pot of chili or some sautéed tomato paste can make in a stew.

What’s your favorite way to bring more umami to your dishes? As always, I’d love to hear from you. Shoot me an email or leave a comment down below!