Korean Job Discussion Forums

[casey's moon]

I love Korean food, and I'm not bad at making most dishes at home, without any �ٽô� (Korean style bouillion) or any other MSG type-ingredients -- but apparently even the side dishes we sometimes buy almost ALL contain MSG. My husband recently read an article about MSG use in Korea, and it is in almost everything here. Even most expensive restaurants use MSG -- it is even listed as an ingredient for some dishes in many Korean cookbooks. Avoiding ramen is one thing, but avoiding Korean restaurants, the school cafeteria and any ready-made side dishes???? Ack!!!!

[canadian_in_korea]

I was shocked too that there is that much msg in korean food.....my brother in law took us to a restaurant in suwon that specifies that it doesn't use msg in anything...I thought....wow I had assumed that most korean food didn't contain msg anyway. My mother in law taught me how to make kimchi and she put msg in it...i was shocked....when i make it I think i'll leave it out and hope it doesn't change the taste too much.

[matthewwoodford]

Yeah, my Korean friends are all aware of this. You have to go to special 'natural ingredients only' restaurants or temple food restaurants - there's at least one in Insadong.

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

It tastes so bloody good, though. A few years back the tenant at the apartment I had recently moved into had a packet of the stuff in her cupboard. I tasted it raw. Like crack, man.

Sparkles*_*

[Squid]

TB- MSG is for the museum, candy companies now are adding a compound which tells your tongue it's sweet. You guessed it, it aint sugar.

Real Reality will dig it up. GuardianUK I think.

[anae]

[the eye]

what's the korean term for MSG ?

[peony]

�̿� - MSG

also ���ұ� has tons of msg in it

i cant tolerate a lot of it, makes all my fingers and toes swell up

[JongnoGuru]

Eye, miwon and tashida are the product brand names, and that's what most people know. Otherwise, �۷�Ž�곪Ʈ�� or ȭ�� ���̷�.

Casey's Moon, I recall you were dead-set against ramyeon for all the widely acknowledged evils of that lowly product... yet you weren't sure exactly what or how bad those evils were. Remember?

So now, here's a thread where you're assuming that MSG itself, presumably in any quantity, is a poison to be avoided at all costs. Um... Might I ask on who's research you're basing this assumption? Because I've got right here, straight from my car, this irrefutable-looking documentation compiled by a guy named "Eddie" from the University of Hawaii that says otherwise.

Yes, Hawaii! The land of sunshine, "Aloha!" ... and PVC grass skirts. The land where the local language has no direct equivalents for the words monosodium glutamate. Nor for the word prevarication. In fact, they got no damn words at all, 'cos everyone there 'speeky the eengleesh'. Wait, wait, wait -- that's not entirely true. They do have this rather convoluted expression for our word liar. Wanna hear it? Okay, all together now... (*inhale*)

He lawai'a no ke kai papa'u, he pokole ke aho; he lawai'a no ke kai hohonu he loa ke aho.

The literal translation is "a fisherman of shallow seas uses only a short line, but a fisherman of the deep sea uses a long line"

Mm-hm.... Mm-hm, mm-hm.

So, according to Eddie:

Many people have concerns about monosodium glutamate, or MSG, a regular ingredient in ethnic dishes in Hawaii. But, a University of Hawaii specialist in food technology says the flavor enhancer is not a health hazard.

So there you have it. Well, I did. And it was yummy!

Nor dare we overlook the fact that, while MSG was discovered by Japanese scientists in the 1920s, it has been used in Asian cooking for 2,000 years without incident. Without incident!!!!! Well... not counting the Mukden Incident, the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, the February 28 Incident, and the Tiananmen Incident. But otherwise, no incident.

Strangely, in recent years, numerous barrel-chested, taller-than-tall Americans reported having adverse reactions to MSG!!!

In response to these complaints, the FDA sponsored extensive reviews of MSG in 1978, 1980 and 1992. The FDA contracted with the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology for the latest study. Their report, released late in 1995, stated that they found no evidence linking MSG to any serious, long-term medical problems in the general population. The report did state that evidence suggests certain people may develop short-term reactions when they consume large doses of MSG or free glutamate of approximately 3 grams or more per meal. The Food and Drug Administration categorizes MSG as ��generally recognized as safe�� along with other food ingredients such as baking powder, table salt and black pepper.

And then there's this:

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) can enhance food flavor. And it's not harmful. So say a team of food science, pharmacology, neuroscience, biochemistry, nutrition, pediatrics, and anatomy experts who recently reviewed the scientific literature concerning its use in food. Their findings were published just months ago in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, and other scientific groups have come to the same conclusion over the last two decades.

Yet, the existence of a Chinese restaurant syndrome is questionable. Bad reactions to MSG are based entirely on anecdotal observations, say the experts. The stories have not been supported by either human or animal studies. And they are not reported by regulatory authorities outside the U.S.

Moreover, the small quantities of MSG used in cooking would not be expected to cause problems since far greater amounts of glutamate are found naturally in many foods, including meat, fish, milk, and vegetables.

So take it from Eddie -- MSG be soooo safe.

[peony]

Dashima (�ٽø�) (or kombu in Japanese) is the basis of MSG
(really thick seaweed not like mi-yuk, you can see this fried til crispy and coated in sugar a lot of times in Korea)

[VanIslander]

[casey's moon]

[desultude]

I try to avoid msg, like C.M., I just try to avoid chemicals and enhancers in my food. Besides, for me the jury is still out on the safety issue.

Just because the U.S. FDA says it's safe, doesn't mean it is so. It's in the hip pockets of the chemical and drug companies. It gets a big no convidence vote from me.

Good food doesn't need chemical enhancement.

[Zyzyfer]

[the eye]