Never believed in MSG hype until my aunt's kitchen in Guangzhou

I used to think MSG was just some fake chemical nonsense that gave you headaches. Then my aunt in Guangzhou cooked me a simple bok choy stir fry with a pinch of it and the taste was completely different - way more savory and round. Has anyone else had their mind changed about MSG after actually trying it?

3 comments

3 Comments

elizabeth_king1mo ago

Oh man, totally. I was the same way until my buddy's mom made mapo tofu with that stuff. It hit different. The mouthfeel was just fuller somehow, like every bite had more depth. I think the whole "MSG headache" thing is mostly in people's heads honestly.

xenarobinson25d agoProlific Poster

Jeez, I read somewhere that the whole MSG scare started because of a fake letter sent to a medical journal back in the 60s. Some dude literally just made up symptoms and it became a whole urban legend. Meanwhile my uncle's been putting that stuff in his chili for 30 years and he's fine, runs marathons at 65. I tried it in my scrambled eggs after hearing about it on a food science podcast and yeah, it's night and day better. People will believe anything if you wrap it in a lab coat.

lee7331mo ago

...and honestly that's the thing right? People will swear up and down MSG gives them migraines but they'll chug a Gatorade without blinking which is basically just salty sugar water with extra steps. Ngl my whole world view shifted when I found out they put MSG in Doritos and nobody's dropping dead from eating a whole bag of Cool Ranch. It's like people think "chemical" is a bad word but literally everything is chemicals including the damn air we breathe. Tbh I've started putting MSG in my eggs in the morning and my life has never been the same.