retired_betsyt

retired_autumn

You'd think, but it's apparently a standard Sichuan dish, and kung pow (gong bao) is its Chinese name too. It was in practically every restaurant we went to in Beijing, which was annoying, because it's a lousy dish, and yet it was instantly recognizable on the menu, as opposed to most other things, which were either unrecognizable, character-wise, or unclear, because their names (i.e., 8 treasures soup, or whatever) gave you little clue what you were getting. In every restaurant the waitress would come over, give us our menus, and then wait for us to order, which got stressful as we had to keep asking her to give us five more minutes while we tried to figure out the dishes. One of my friends kept cracking under the pressure and tossing in gong bao chicken whenever we were stuck for one more dish. Bastard. I had it way too many times while I was there.

retired_rachelst

General Tso's chicken :pukes:

BlueSky

Crispy honey chilli beef or beef with green peppers and black bean.


Love prawn toast mmmm

retired_el_chanclas

Mongolian Lamb.

Is that really chinese :o

retired_suzannechua

Sweet + Sour Pork
Special Fried Rice
Satay Beef and Chicken Skewers.

retired_elohiim1217

Don't think there is a link to cancer but on the wikipedia article says some people have a reaction to it, and in mice high amounts of glutamic acid caused brain damage in them or something. </BLOCKQUOTE>


Lermon is correct, it's not proven, but a lot of people say they are allergic to it and at the least it makes you very thirsty. There are many restaurants serving non-MSG food in HK.

It's also not unique to Chinese food. It's a flavour enhancer which is equally prevalent in Indian, Japanese, Korean, etc

retired_elohiim1217

Literally yes. It's Monosodium Glutamate, invented by the Japanese to make food tastier. You can buy it in a large container in the form of fine white crystals, like salt.

In practice, unless a restaurant is committed to MSG-free food, you're unlikely to get it, because it's not usually sprinkled onto food like salt, even though they can be.

Most restaurants use pre-prepared sauces and stocks which already have MSG added, so you can't remove it. They would also have to use MSG-free soy sauce.

retired_little.splash

shark soup if that counts
otherwise sweet and sour pork

retired_nashfine

Don't think there is a link to cancer but on the wikipedia article says some people have a reaction to it, and in mice high amounts of glutamic acid caused brain damage in them or something. </BLOCKQUOTE>


Lermon is correct, it's not proven, but a lot of people say they are allergic to it and at the least it makes you very thirsty. There are many restaurants serving non-MSG food in HK.

It's also not unique to Chinese food. It's a flavour enhancer which is equally prevalent in Indian, Japanese, Korean, etc </BLOCKQUOTE>

Pretty sure Indian food does not contain MSG well thats what TV told me