Sunday, July 04, 2010

A Little MSG Please

MSG - a tidy little acronym that we all are familiar that means Mono Sodium Glutamate (whatever that is). It is most commonly associated with Chinese food. We might know what it stands for but few of us really know what it is. Unfortunately, I am one of the poor soles who are affected by this chemical (?) and tend to get terrible headaches or just general uneasiness after enjoying my favorite Chinese dishes. Now, it seems, that no Chinese restaurants include it anymore and the taste of the food is much different - and I'll say worse.

Now the same thing is happening to my canned soup. All the leading brands of canned soup (Campbell's Progresso, etc.) are toting labels that read "No MSG" and I can report that they all suck - they taste bland and lifeless and I'm guessing MSG has been replace with just garlic. Apparently, MSG is what makes things taste good - who knew?

I think this is a clear case of of the old saying"all things in moderation". Perhaps we can enjoy our Chinese food and even our canned soup with just a little MSG for that enhanced taste we all love, but not enough that it gives us unpleasant side effects. Let's try just a little and see how that works out. Let's get back to full flavor! And while we are at it, lets start using real butter again too - in moderation of course.

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