Food cultures of human beings have been changing along with the globalization of the world’s societies. Japanese food such as Sushi has become popular around the world for its taste and its low fat considered being good for diet. In general, most Japanese dishes have mild taste because it has unique taste. It could be said that umami, the fifth basic taste, is the center taste of Japanese food. It is not easy or may be difficult for most people to explain umami taste because it is different from those popular four basic tastes, sweet, sour, salty and bitter. Most foreigners do not feel much of those four tastes from Japanese food and may feel that it has mild favor as a whole. Umami taste is not so obvious for most foreigners to recognize, on the other hand, Japanese are familiar with this taste and use it as a main taste of Japanese cuisine. One of the major influences on Japanese cuisine is raw materials, especially raw fish. Japan is an archipelago country which all parts have an access to the ocean. As an island nation, Japanese take advantages of the abundant seafood supply. Therefore, fishes and other kinds of seafood are the main ingredients to find. Fish is commonly used in the Japanese traditional cuisine. It is often grilled, but it may also be served raw as sashimi or in sushi. Historically, when technology was not yet developed enough to keep fresh raw materials, Japanese aged raw fishes and seafood in order to supply them from the ocean to household consumers. The aged food process creates “umami” taste in materials which Japanese learn and use it as Japanese taste. Today umami is still used as center taste of many Japanese foods. Japanese taste is original and is strongly influenced by its geography that leads to food supplies and production process. The way of living and eating creates a unique way of how Japanese feel about the taste.

 The average red wine is bitter, astringent, and sour. The taste of meat is composed of umami and saltiness. Meat also tastes a little bit sweet. Let’s compare red wine and meat. The bitterness and sourness of red wine is the same strength as the saltiness and umami of meat! The contrast results in a delicious taste. How about red wine and fish? Fish has saltiness and umami too, but in less amounts than in meat. This means the aftertaste of red wine will overwhelm the taste of fish, which leads to an unbalanced flavor. So red wine goes better with meat than fish. How about white wine? White wine is sour and bitter, but not as much as red wine. Meat tastes too strong to go with white wine. However, white wine goes well with fish, because white wine’s sourness and bitterness works nicely with the saltiness and umami of fish. T hat’s why red wine tastes better with meat, and white wine tastes better with fish. I wasn’t sure what you wanted to say in these two cases: So, it feels better contrast between red wine and meat!