Are You ready to Cook w/that seasoning from TikTok?
If you have spent time on TikTok, you have probably seen a video or two or 1000 about eating a whole cucumber. The creator Logan is responsible for the cucumber trend. But it has since taken off, and everyone is eating/cooking a cucumber a day. But many folks have no idea what seasoning Logan and others are using on TikTok. The seasoning being used on TikTok is called MSG or monosodium glutamate, and it is delicious.
Some of you may have heard that eating or cooking with it can be dangerous or make you ill. Well, I’m here to tell you that is not true. The following is from The Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics to immediately quell some questions.
Until 2020, Merriam-Webster Dictionary has included and defined “Chinese restaurant syndrome” (CRS) as “a group of symptoms (such as numbness of the neck, arms, and back with headache, dizziness, and palpitations) that is held to affect susceptible persons eating food and especially Chinese food heavily seasoned with monosodium glutamate.”In January 2020, a campaign pushing Meriam Webster to redefine CRS was driven by the assertion that the health consequences of monosodium glutamate (MSG) consumption is very weak, if existent, with the claim itself reflecting racialized, xenophobic undertones.The campaign was spearheaded by Ajinomoto, a Japanese food and biotech company and leading producer of MSG worldwide, which alerted the public to this controversial term on Twitter with the hashtag #RedefineCRS. Though the campaign was promotional, pushing for the acceptance and use of MSG-based Ajinomoto products, it still referenced the long history of America’s racism toward Asians in the food and culinary world, which has manifested itself in the mistrust of MSG. Merriam-Webster has agreed that it is a “dated” and “sometimes offensive” term and have since replaced “Chinese restaurant syndrome” with “MSG symptom complex,” while noting that scientists have not been able to link MSG to adverse reactions.Although the updated definition is a step in the right direction, there is still much work to be done on dispelling the racism around this seasoning.
Journal Of nutrition and Dietetics
The headaches I was getting were because of MSG consumption. A doctor told my parents this; they believed him because he was the doctor, and they were not. It turns out that that was a falsehood deeply rooted in racism. It was not until I was an adult that I realized I could eat MGS in the form of a product called Accent that Ms. Gibson and others used in their soul food cooking that I was not having the reactions I did when I was younger. Then, as the years passed and I learned more about spices and humans’ core tastes that, I came to understand my parents and my teenage self were part of the xenophobic-rooted MSG scare.
For a quick but comprehensive video on this subject from NowThis and Soogia, follow this link.
All of that information brings me to today, when Tripping Vittles is offering a wonderful, deeply full-bodied, flavorful MSG for all your cooking needs. You will want to use this in meaty and sour-flavored dishes. It is why it works so well with that Asian-flavored cucumber-a-day trend. The umami, earthy, meaty, savory flavor adds to everything from soups and stews to veggies and curry.
Click the marketplace above and get yourself some MSG. You will love it!
As far as the other things used on TikTok to make some of the excellent cooking content check out my TikTok Shopping List on Amazon