Umami

Tuesday 4th January

Day 258

Yesterday

My husband lights the fire in the sitting room and makes a pot of leaf Earl Grey tea. We sit next to each other on the sofa. On the table in front of us are pens and notepaper, our diaries, my computer, a print-out of our monthly standing orders and outgoings - for our usual New Year planning session. It’s our twenty fifth wedding anniversary year - silver.

We don’t venture very far into the stretching empty months. Soon our second cup of tea goes cold and I’m glad of the lance of his tears and hunched rage which I’ve been waiting for.

A little later while he walks in damp woods, I put on a panful of brown rice to boil and steam onions and mushrooms, pak choi and red peppers in a garlic broth. A squirt of rich dark umami paste wakes it up. Umami is Japanese for that undefineable deliciousness, a natural savouriness that you find in Parmesan cheese.

It’s good to have a secret ingredient that makes everything taste better. Like keeping the sun in your store cupboard.