blake wrote on Tue, 27 Feb 2007 17:52:15 GMT:

??>> "blake murphy" > wrote in message
??>> ...
??>>> On Fri, 23 Feb 2007 13:55:32 -0600, Steve Wertz
??>>> > wrote:
??>>>
??>>>> On Thu, 22 Feb 2007 22:54:47 -0500, ian wrote:
??>>>>
??>>>>> Continuing my one-man monitoring of Fuchsia Dunlop's
??>>>>> writings, here she is endorsing, gasp!!, the use of
??>>>>> MSG.
??>>>>
??>>>> Good article. What, exactly, did you find wrong with
??>>>> it?
??>>>>
??>>>> -sw
??>>>
??>>> do folks here have strong feelings pro or con on the use
??>>> of msg? i usually use it when it's called for (more
??>>> often, of course, in japanese recipes) and don't if it's
??>>> not. should i be jamming it into meat loaf? (i just
??>>> bought a pound of the stuff - at this rate, several
??>>> lifetimes' supply. still cheaper than a canister of
??>>> ac'cent.)
??>>>
??>>> your pal,
??>>> blake
??>>>
??>> I've been making Japanese food for a couple decades and
??>> have never used msg. None of my relatives in Japan do
??>> either. During the 1960s when I was a little kid, a bottle
??>> of "ajinomoto" was always found on the table next to the
??>> soy sauce. I havent seen any for quite some time even
??>> though I know it still exists and is sold in stores. I
??>> look at quite a number of recipes in Japanese magazines
??>> and books and never find Ajinomoto (msg) listed as
??>> a recipe ingredient. Take my word for it, you don't need
??>> msg to make good Japanese dishes. The whole idea
??>> of ajinomoto (msg) was to reproduce the "umami" that comes
??>> from amino acids. If you use traditional dashi ingredients
??>> like Konbu, it comes naturally. Musashi
??>>
bm> msg is a little easier for me to get a hold of than konbu.
bm> (i'm a sissy - what can i say? when i use dashi, i make
bm> the powdered stuff from a jar.)

Judging by the amounts and varieties on the shelves of my
favorite Japanese grocery, Japanese people use prepared dried
stocks too! You can even find Hon Dashi in my favorite *Chinese*
supermarket: Kam Sen in Rockville, MD. Kam Sen does not let
ethnic correctness stand in the way of pleasing the customers;
they've got Phillipino and Vietnamese stuff too and I usually
buy miso imported from Japan there. The only Japanese condiment
that I have not found there is Tonkatsu sauce.

By the way, did you know that Pakistanis call MSG Chinese Salt?

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.comcast.not