Unlike table salt and other traditional preservatives, there is no body of knowledge linking the use of MSG to disease although it has been in use now for more than a hundred years in Japan and China. Nevertheless, reliance on the convenience that it affords the cook, I gather, is glanced at obliquely as unpraiseworthy kitchen practice. Why? Perhaps because to many who never needed to venture farther than the dining room, kitchen work is not virtuous unless it is a slow and tedious chore and drudgery. I treat it as a lifesaver. For those emergencies when despite all your best efforts the result is still underwhelming and the only thing that separates you and a culinary disaster is the MSG caster.

Clarissa, yes, the mussel juice is superb, just like clam juice. Rob, yes, Italian food… as the Greeks, nearby pair shrimp with tomatoes and feta cheese and that’s brilliant… Khew I like that comparison “cheese is nature’s MSG”… so true.