What is Umami?

Umami is hard to translate, to judge by the number of English words that have been suggested as equivalents, such as savoury, essence, pungent, deliciousness, and meaty. It’s sometimes associated with a feeling of perfect quality in a taste, or of some special emotional circumstance in which a taste is experienced. It is also said to involve all the senses, not just that of taste. There’s more than a suggestion of a spiritual or mystical quality about the word. - Wikipedia

Has this untranslatable term gone MIA (missing in action) in our industrial western diet?

Or have we snuck it in to our processed foods craving for one more bite of spirituality?

Is our relationship with food just mechanical? Is it spiritual? Political? Mutual? Sustainable? And if it isn’t, should it be?

This is not your ordinary food blog. Nothing is excluded here. Let's address it all.