From http://thestar.com.my/kuali/recipes/05jzcook.htmlThe number five has always been central in Chinese food culture. The earliest book on medicine, Neijing (Internal Channels), written over 2,000 years ago said that the body needed "five flavours'' to live: five grains for nourishment, five fruits for support, five animals for benefit, and five vegetables for energy.
This idea is perpetuated in the traditional flavours deemed fundamental to Chinese cooking; sweet, sour, bitter, hot and salty. That was when flavouring agents were natural products such as honey, fruit jam, nuts, herbs, chillies, peppers and salt.
Later, processed flavouring such as sugar, vinegar and jiang (soy) began to be used, and the Chinese created two additional flavours.
One is xiang which translates to "fragrant'' or "aromatic,'' a taste associated with wine, garlic, spring onion, sesame seeds, Szechuan pepper and other such spices.
The other taste is xian which means "delicious'' or "savoury,'' a flavour produced by good chicken or meat stock, oyster sauce, mushroom sauce, shrimp sauce and monosodium glutamate (MSG).
But, of course, that is only 7 flavours, not eight...
Other sources said "Bitter Sweet Hot, spicy, pungent Salty Acid, sour as in vinegar"
and
"hot, sour, sweet, salty, bitter and fragrant"
I also found one source that said "bland" was the last flavour.
Very interesting! (I'm getting hungry now!!!)
~*sirepseh*~