Pizza brings smiles to millions of faces every year. In Detroit, you can find many pizza kitchens open daily offering the warm cheesy pies all day and night. This delightful food has been around for generations and continues to be a family favorite. When asked why pizza is so popular, you will likely get all kinds of responses. Some like the sauce, while others like the cheese. Then there are the topping options. Endless topping choices attract many to pizza. You can have a conventional pizza with cheese or get fancy and put figs. Whatever your favorite flavors are, you can find a topping to put on a pizza to suit you. That is only part of the insatiable attraction to this fantastic flat food. There are actually scientifically supported reasons why this food is so beloved.
Taste Buds Are Important
Our tongues recognize five different categories of taste. They are sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. Within different foods there are different substances that stimulate our taste buds. This results in experiencing different kinds of tastes. For example, sucrose in foods make us taste “sweet,” hydrochloric acid allows us to taste the “sour,” sodium chloride causes the salty flavor, quinine allows us to taste the “bitter,” and glutamate stimulates our taste buds to taste umami.
While we are generally familiar with sweet, sour, salty and bitter, umami is not as well known. This is a Japanese word described as rich and savory. Glutamate was made famous by monosodium glutamate or MSG. It acts as a natural flavor enhancer.
How Pizza Romances Taste Buds
The more glutamate in food the more flavor our palettes perceive. Typically, animal products like beef, pork, chicken and fish are high in glutamate. Guess what else is high in glutamate? Tomatoes and cheese! These two ingredients are part of the foundation of pizza. Pizza kitchens around the world pack on these taste bud enticing ingredients and keep our moths watering for more.
When we take our first bite, our taste buds are stimulated by glutamate and we become hooked and want more. Some common toppings like mushrooms add even more glutamate, providing even more flavor.
If your mouth is watering and you are looking for a great pizza kitchen to serve you a glutamate filled pie, come and visit Toarmina’s Pizza at website or at (313)274-6116.
