Re: Young Coconut- kimchee

[Guest guest]

Hi Folks,

I live near what you would call little Saigon. You can find

Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean restaruants and huge

oriental markets. I went to a few oriental grocery stores to look

at the glass jarred Kimchi but noticed monosodium glutamate as

one of the ingredients. Does anyone know if msg is typical of

an authentic recipe for Kimchi?

-Vee

>

>

> >

> > as far as " success " stories eating out, korean restaurants are

great,

> > especially the ones in manhattan. you can get authentic beef

bone

> > broth (for free instead of rice usually!), raw fermented veggies,

sea

> > veggies, sea meat, etc all free as " appetizers " and get entrees

like

> > raw beef, barbecued beef, snails, goat, pork stomach, beef

tendons,

> > pork+oysters, various soups, stews, etc, and it's not

expensive!

> > i've had unbelievably delicious and nutritious meals for less

than

> > $20, and at hours like 3am no less! (many of these places are

open

> > 24 hrs!!)

>

>

> Now this is good news!

>

> Usually when I go out it is to a very upscale type restaurant

because I

> know I can get raw stuff of all kind, especially the steakhouses.

They

> don't blink when I say I want my steak " kissed " on each side no more

> than thirty seconds (although sometimes I have to explain in detail

> exactly what i want), or order carpaccio or down a ton of oysters

on the

> half shell. And I love the table side presentations of beef tartar.

But

> going upscale means EXPENSIVE and now you are telling me I can hit

an

> ethnic restaurant and get what I want on the cheap? Love it!!

>

> There are some ethnic restaurants in the area that have raw meat

dishes,

> but usually only one. What you describe above sounds to good to be

true

> :-) so I will be checking out some Korean restaurants over the next

few

> weeks.

>

> Thx,

>

>

> Recall Arnold

> http://www.sobran.com/columns/2003/030812.shtml

[Guest guest]

>I went to a few oriental grocery stores to look

>at the glass jarred Kimchi but noticed monosodium glutamate as

>one of the ingredients. Does anyone know if msg is typical of

>an authentic recipe for Kimchi?

>-Vee

MSG is typical in the cookbooks! Judging from the ingredient

lists, the Asians have no problem with MSG in general. However,

in American ingredients, I've heard it just isn't usually on the

label, it is hidden under " natural flavorings " . I don't know when

MSG was first available as an additive, but I'd guess 200 years

ago they did NOT add MSG. However, I get headaches from MSG

sometimes and never have from kimchi, so I'm not sure how

much they add or if it gets broken down or changed somewhat during

fermentation.

There is also the issue that fermenting some foods creates

MSG. One guy who is very chemically sensitive wrote me that

every batch of fermented anything he made set him off. I

don't know if MSG was the culprit -- fermenting creates hundreds

of chemicals!

Anyway, my main issue with kimchi in the jar is that once

you get addicted, it just costs too much! The jars are good for

making your own though, esp. if you get those big half-gallon

ones! Sometimes you can find them without MSG on the label.

-- Heidi

[Guest guest]

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>

> >I went to a few oriental grocery stores to look

> >at the glass jarred Kimchi but noticed monosodium glutamate as

> >one of the ingredients. Does anyone know if msg is typical of

> >an authentic recipe for Kimchi?

> >-Vee

>

> MSG is typical in the cookbooks! Judging from the ingredient

> lists, the Asians have no problem with MSG in general. However,

> in American ingredients, I've heard it just isn't usually on the

> label, it is hidden under " natural flavorings " . I don't know when

> MSG was first available as an additive, but I'd guess 200 years

> ago they did NOT add MSG. However, I get headaches from MSG

> sometimes and never have from kimchi, so I'm not sure how

> much they add or if it gets broken down or changed somewhat during

> fermentation.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

MSG is most certainly not an authentic ingredient!!!!

Of course most of the cookbooks we have access to are from the 20th

century and will have ingredients like that which weren't even

available in the centuries of the recipe's evolution.

MSG has always occurred naturally in the human diet, and it is one of

the five basic taste sensations according to current neuroscience

(sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami), but it wasn't identified and

isolated until about 100 years ago when a Japanese researcher was

investigating the chemical basis of the traditional use of sea

vegetables to flavor stocks. Sea veggies like kelp are a

concentrated source of natural MSG. Within a few decades of this

major discovery, a synthetic version became commercially available

and has been deeply embedded in commercial food culture ever since.

My understanding (I haven't read that book about neurotoxins that NT

cites) is that natural and synthetic MSG are slightly different

chemically (bond geometry or something) and that's why the synethetic

stuff might be bad news. I almost never eat food that wasn't

prepared from scratch by myself using safe ingredients, so I don't

worry about these things at all.

mike parker