Your Mommy, To Mama, Umami

Umami or savory is one of the five basic tastes. It is characteristic of broths and cooked meats . . . and somewhere in-between. It sometimes produces an exclamation like, “Whoa? What the heck is that?” I found the answer! The day before I had made Peggy a sausage-mushroom omelet breakfast with one little strange addition. She loved it. I was up early at 3:30am to edit a trade show video for Wayne Hammond and his client Fish Baranof of Sitka, Alaska. I needed protein to start me off right. 

I turned the burner on and placed one small frozen sausage link in the middle of a small frying pan. I sliced up three mushrooms, sprinkled them with a little salt and pepper, and placed them around the frying sausage. 

While the mushrooms were browning, I broke two eggs into a large cup and mixed in a tablespoon of left-over Tom Kha soup. I put two pieces of sourdough bread into the toaster to crisp up, then I added the eggs and a tablespoon Tom Kha soup into the frying pan with the sausage and mushrooms. Tom Kha soup is a basic Thai offering which features seafood, mushrooms, and coconut milk, and some red pepper flakes. While you can make your own, it’s easier to order and take out and keep in the refrigerator for a few days. Most any Thai restaurant will do, but we prefer Superpho at the Westgate Shopping Center on North Pearl.

Soon I sat down to buttered toast, and scrambled eggs. I didn’t really take a first bite . . . the second, third, and fourth followed so quickly it was hard to keep track. The soup had been a two star purchase, but there was absolutely no spicy heat with the scrambled eggs. The taste was . . . hard to describe.  Let’s just use the term “wonderful.” Before taking the eggs off the burner I added some Italian cheese before serving the dish to myself. Yes, I gave myself a nice tip.