The MSG Revival
Photo: Alex Yem
My mother cooks without care for instruction. She’s a notorious freestyler, preferring to season her dishes by taste instead of by metrics for precision. She doesn’t bother to write down recipes. She only ever dictates specific steps to me over the phone. Yet, my mom is always keen to impart upon me one nugget of knowledge: No phở or bún broth is complete without a teaspoon of chicken bouillon powder in Vietnamese. Take care to sprinkle it lightly, she often reminds me. Don’t overdo it.
My mom prefers using Totole’s granulated chicken bouillon, a fine powder that contains monosodium glutamate, or MSG (bột ngọt in Vietnamese) as one of its primary ingredients. I wasn’t surprised to learn this when I finally bought a can. Many Vietnamese recipes, such as bún bò huế and bánh canh, include MSG as a flavor enhancer, especially for broths that might need hours to simmer. Still, it carries a loaded reputation among Vietnamese home and professional cooks alike. Some dismiss bột ngọt as a seasoning shortcut, while others believe it to be an unhealthy alternative to salt (it isn’t).
Such opinions have been amplified by decades-old, racist misconceptions about MSG among white American restaurant-goers, who feared contracting the elusive “Chinese restaurant syndrome.” Added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 1993, the term refers to a widespread, though scientifically dubious belief that consuming MSG, specifically in Asian food, leads to headaches, nausea, or other psychosomatic symptoms.
Photo: Alex Yem
In recent years, however, MSG has undergone a slow reputational rehabilitation within the Asian American culinary community. I’ve noticed more young chefs and up-and-coming culinary entrepreneurs, aware of the bogus claims lobbed against MSG, champion it as a crucial flavor booster in their creations. At Bonnie’s, a Cantonese restaurant in Brooklyn, MSG is sprinkled in martinis and integrated into nearly every dish on the menu with “nuanced artistry,” according to a recent New Yorker article.
For Chef Eric Sze of 886 and WenWen, two Taiwanese restaurants in New York, MSG is dusted over his infamous BDSM fried chicken along with salt, sugar, and white pepper to create “Taiwan dust.” Some of Lunar Hard Seltzer’s most sought-after flavors contain a hint of MSG. And Omsom, an Asian pantry starter brand sold in Whole Foods nationwide, doesn’t shy from incorporating the seasoning agent into its flavor packets. Its founders have even advocated for MSG’s inclusion into the Whole30 program.
This comfortable embrace of MSG is common among second- and third-generation Asian Americans, but it’s a departure from attitudes held by their immigrant forebears. For decades, first-generation restaurateurs bore the primary brunt of the MSG hysteria. Many feared losing customers and their livelihoods. Some lacked the language capacity to defend their culinary background. They had no choice but to denounce MSG before customers could inquire by inscribing a statement on the top of their menus — “NO MSG” — a practice that prevails even today.
“Some folks still hold onto this inaccurate perception of MSG from the ‘70s and ‘80s,” said Kim Pham, the co-founder of Omsom. “Over the past five years, I think there’s been a bigger shift. The public is becoming more receptive to MSG. More Asian Americans are advocating for it, and I think more people are realizing they were mistaken about MSG.”
MSG contains salt and a compound called glutamate, which is naturally found in foods like tomato, nuts, and parmesan cheese. When added to dishes, glutamate produces a rich, savory, and meaty flavor — a burst of flavor that the Japanese call umami. A Japanese chemist discovered glutamate in 1907 and began extracting it from foods that are high in the substance, mixing the compound with water and salt to stabilize. He called it aji no moto, or “essence of taste” in English, and patented the product alongside an entrepreneur, who launched a company under the same name. Over the next few decades, Ajinomoto manufactured and exported MSG to kitchens around the world. It became a hit in Asia before making its way to the US.
But in 1968, the New England Journal of Medicine published a letter that kindled the mass hysteria towards MSG. The letter, purportedly written by a white man posing as a Chinese doctor, presented spurious claims about MSG’s effects on his health. His findings were disputed and later revealed to be entirely made up, but it was too late. MSG’s reputation was spoiled. Ajinomoto has since embarked on a years-long effort to rebrand MSG — as umami and as an innocuous low sodium substitute. More recently, the company advocated for Merriam Webster to remove “Chinese restaurant syndrome” from the dictionary with the help of prominent Asian American celebrities and influencers, like Eddie Huang and Jeannie Mai. Ajinomoto also recently launched the cleverly-branded “Know MSG” campaign to debunk common MSG myths, with comedian Jenny Yang as its spokesperson.
Photo: Courtesy of Lunar
While there are still unfounded fears about MSG, more customers seem willing to try new, experimental flavors and foods, a boon for its reputation. The gourmet-ification of Asian American cuisine, starting with the success of David Chang’s Momofuku, has also helped.
“For Lunar’s pineapple cake hard seltzer, we used MSG to get that savory pastry aroma into the can,” said Kevin Wong, the co-founder of Lunar. “We were just messing around with different amounts of MSG and realized it rounded out the flavors so well.”
That specific seltzer was created in collaboration with Eric Sze of 886. Before the drink’s release, Wong and his team worried the flavor wouldn’t get cleared by the FDA since it contained MSG. To their relief, it did.
“There’s still those xenophobic claims that MSG will make you thirsty or bloated, but I think people are coming around to it,” Wong added. “And it’s not just Asian Americans who are trying it. People from all backgrounds really like the pineapple seltzer, and we haven’t received any negative feedback.”
Over the past two decades, more Americans have grown accustomed to Asian condiments and ingredients like soy sauce, fish sauce, coconut milk, and sesame oil. For Pham at Omsom, the goal is to normalize MSG as a staple pantry item to have on reserve. Home cooks shouldn’t be afraid to sprinkle it in their soups or stews.
“So much of the trendy foods like tomatoes, mushrooms, and anchovies are packed with that umami flavor, which is what MSG does,” Pham said. “It’s a super versatile enhancer and it’s already found in so many foods that people eat, like Cool Ranch Doritos.”