MSG

Nowadays many customers request "no msg" in their Chinese carryout. Our restaurant does not add msg during the cooking process, but some of the ingredients commonly used in Chinese cuisine, such as oyster sauce, contain monosodium glutamate. So in fact, many restaurants in Chinatown and other Chinese restaurants claim they don't use msg, but many of the bottled sauces they use already contain msg in them. How do customers feel about this?

I feel that if a restaurant says "no MSG", then it had better not have any MSG in anything. That being said, I love MSG as it is a great umami taste enhancer, and will more likely frequent a Chinese restaurant if they DO use MSG.

It would be almost impossible to have no msg whatsoever in Chinese cooking. Even soy sauce has msg, and soy sauce is used in almost everything. I wish that customers would understand this...They are so adament about no msg. But it's impossible to keep msg out.

I can't by any means say this is universal, but I recall seeing "We add no MSG" more often than "No MSG" in the places I've been and the menus in the mailers recently.

MSG and free glutamates are different things. Soy sauce has free glutamates in it, but most brands I've seen do not have monosodium glutamate.

Tons of things have lots of free glutamates in them, including tomatoes and hard cheeses (one of the reasons pizza and pasta can taste so good).

The whole "oh noes, msg is skerring me!" thing is (to me) super goofy. It seems like complaining about a restaurant adding salt, or sugar, or vinegar to a dish. Not many restaurants have "No Added Acidity" on their menu, though.

the venting:

Argh...this "Chinese restaurant syndrome" bullshit! And...oh...I dunno...the whole Chinese food is "greasy" mythology. Um...try not ordering deep-fried foods from less-reputable storefronts...I get ahead of myself.

-simply put, I believe fear of MSG is gastronomical imperialism...hey! the Chinese eat dogs and cats...don't they?...what's that in your moo goo gai pan? MSG Happy *canine* Family?

people are astonishingly ignorant about MSG: scout the 'net---I *read* it causes foetal alcohol syndrome and carpal tunnel...also-glaucoma of third eye!

yes, anyone can be allergic to anything...but, this willful ignorance as regards poor, benighted MSG: gimme a break

-

It's like nobody's ever eaten a potato/corn chip or "snack" cracker in the U.S. - chock-full-of MSG... Somehow that doesn't seem to bother people... weird...

Glutamate is a neurotransmitter. If we accept that eating foods high in Tryptophan can make us sleepy, why do we not accept that eating foods high in Glutamic acid can have an effect?

leek wrote:Glutamate is a neurotransmitter. If we accept that eating foods high in Tryptophan can make us sleepy, why do we not accept that eating foods high in Glutamic acid can have an effect?

We don't agree that foods high in tryptophan make us sleepy.

Accepted food myths are irksome.

It might've been Dr. Cecil(Straight Dope) who fielded the tryptophan question awhile back.

Tryptophan in a turkey dinner doesn't make you sleepy because, for tryptophan to be effective, it has to be taken on an empty stomach.

It's the sheer amount of food that makes you sleepy.

My dissent is with people who hate MSG but love foods high in free glutamates. It should be noted that in the (very small) portion of the population that has ill effects caused by MSG, it generally also has to be taken on an empty stomach, or with a clear broth.

So if you empty a shaker jar of Ac'cent into the wonton soup, well, in 1% or so of the population you might have problems. But if you mix a little into your egg foo young or mongolian beef, I doubt anyone will feel any pain.

gleam wrote:Tryptophan in a turkey dinner doesn't make you sleepy because, for tryptophan to be effective, it has to be taken on an empty stomach.

It's the sheer amount of food that makes you sleepy.

My dissent is with people who hate MSG but love foods high in free glutamates. It should be noted that in the (very small) portion of the population that has ill effects caused by MSG, it generally also has to be taken on an empty stomach, or with a clear broth.

So if you empty a shaker jar of Ac'cent into the wonton soup, well, in 1% or so of the population you might have problems. But if you mix a little into your egg foo young or mongolian beef, I doubt anyone will feel any pain.

thanks for being more succinct...MSG gets me all riled up...must be a reaction:

MSG and tryptophan are just the beginning...so much of Western pop-gastronomy is based upon faulty statistics, trend-analysis, and banal ignorance. Perhaps not to the "imperialistic" extent that I denote in my original post, yet, I do question how certain culinary misapprehensions are conflated with other, less-palatable, cultural assumptions.