Vegetables were invented by the Japanese. There is a short story about its invention.
Professor Ikeda Miaoju of Tokyo University is a chemist in his forties. He is engaged in both teaching and scientific research in the university.
1908 One night in midsummer, Ikeda came home from an experiment, and his wife brought him food and soup.
"What a sumptuous dinner today!" Ikeda said happily. The wife nodded with satisfaction. Ikeda ate with relish. Suddenly, he stopped eating, hesitated for a while, and his eyes stopped on the cucumber soup. "This bowl of soup is so fresh today!"
"Is there nothing in the soup except kelp and cucumber?" Ikeda asked his wife.
"Yes!" The wife replied, "This kelp was bought in Hibiya Park this morning. Quite fresh. "
"There must be something in this kelp!" Ikeda said to himself.
The wife is very confused.
From this day on, Professor Ikeda carefully studied the chemical composition of kelp in the chemical laboratory of the University of Tokyo. Half a year later, he extracted a substance called sodium glutamate from kelp. The answer was finally revealed. It was sodium glutamate that greatly improved the flavor of dishes. Therefore, Ikeda named it "the essence of taste" and obtained a patent.
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were thousands of advertisements everywhere in China. Engineer Wu was very interested in this powder, so he bought a bottle to study it. He determined that the main component of the powder was sodium glutamate, so he wanted to create the flavor of China. After a year,10g white powder crystal was finally extracted, which tastes the same as that of Japan. Wu believes that "the most fragrant perfume is essence, and the sweetest taste is saccharin. Then, the freshest thing might as well be named' Su Wei' ".