Wokipedia: U is for ... Udon, Uighur, Umami, Undercut

Wokipedia is a regular magazine column in which we introduce aspects of Chinese gastronomy, one letter at a time. This issue, 'U' gets the treatment.

U is for ...

... udon 乌冬面
Thick, chewy udon noodles are one of the most recognisable varieties of the Japanese culinary canon. Though history has obscured their back story, some academics have suggested that udon (and other Japanese noodles) have their origin in Tang dynasty China, when a Nara era Japanese envoy discovered them and other wheaten Chinese concoctions and took them back to the homeland.

... uighur 维吾尔族
The Uighur (or Uyghur) are a Turkic ethnic group from Eastern and Central Asia that live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwestern China. When it comes to food, the term Uighur is often used interchangeably with Xinjiang, but whatever you call it the food combines influences from Central Asian and Chinese cuisine and is characterized by the use of lamb, dairy products, vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, and onions, and grilled breads. Typical dishes include polu (抓 饭), a sort of rice pilaf; leghmen (手抓拉面), stir-fried hand pulled noodles in a tomato-based sauce; and, of course, good old chuan’r (串). Seafood udon at man yo

... umami 鲜味
Umami, or savory taste, is one of the five basic tastes but was only classified as such in 1908 when it was first identified by Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda. Kikunae found that glutamate was responsible for the palatability of the broth from kombu seaweed. Further research over the course of the twentieth century confirmed that people taste umami through taste receptors specific to glutamate (as in monosodium glutamate or MSG), which is widely found in savory products. Many common Chinese ingredients, including soy sauce, dried shiitake mushrooms, and green tea, are rich in umami.

... undercut 里脊肉
In butchery terms, the technical definition of the undercut is “the tender meat of the loin muscle on each side of the spine.” Or in other words, it’s the tenderloin. Can you tell that “U” is one of the more difficult Wokipedia’s to write? Undercut can also refer to an on-the-bone sirloin with the fillet still attached to the other side. If you want to buy undercut or tenderloin from your butcher, ask for 里 脊肉 (lîjiròu).

This article first appeared in the March/April issue of the Beijinger.

More stories by this author here.

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Photo courtesy of Man Yo