Dashi cooking stock

The word umami, which has entered the global lexicon, may arguably be tracked back to dashi (cooking stock). An essential component of Japan’s food culture, dashi—a uniquely Japanese ingredient—first made its appearance in Osaka. Golden yellow in color, and continuing to serve as an indispensable element of Osaka’s food culture today, dashi in its most fundamental form is a mixture of kombu (dried kelp) and skipjack flakes.