How MSG and the Instant Noodle murdered food

No matter where you go in the west, the mention of noodles as a meal is seen as cheap student junk food made from instant packets. In the east, instant noodles or "ramen" are sold everywhere very cheaply but looked down upon as being bad not just for your intestine but generally for one's soul.

How could it be that a traditional dish which is so delicious has become the scum of the culinary world?

Noodle Bar in Schiphol Airport

When I came across my first noodle bar in Schiphol airport in Amsterdam I was more than excited - not too excited about the prices - however, it was my first approximation of what Japanese Ramen should be all about. Instantly my mind set to work wondering how the soup was made, what noodles they used, what the weird immersion machinery was and how it worked.

Noodles or Ramen were originally a Chinese invention which was imported to Japan after the 1800's during the Meiji period. Use of starchy flours and cereals along with other ingredients yielding glutinous properties were mixed and then beaten and stretched into long thin strands which were then cut, dried and stored (much like Spaghetti in Italy - omitting the use of egg as a binding agent) or used immediately.

Interesting video on the making of noodles 

(source not mine)

In China, these noodles are more often eaten as a dish stir fried with vegetables and meat/fish and contain no soup as such. 

In Japan, depending on the available ingredients in the area, variations of noodles arose using various different methods - Buckwheat for Soba noodles, oil for Somen etc... Some are eaten with dipping sauces, others served more like the traditional Chinese stir-fry and others within soup. 

Soups in Japan and China work on the principle of working Umami (rich, savoury flavours) ingredients as a base for the creation of a stock which is then flavoured according to the main ingredient, then punctuated with fragrant ingredients that give a top note. Chinese "Master Stock" is made using a base and is then built up over time by cooking meats and vegetables in it and then being set aside. The stock itself then becomes the base for soups such as Won Ton soup, having absorbed the naturally occurring monosodium glutamate from the food into a concentrated form (note - more on this later). In Japan, the soup base is fresher, made up of mixes of fermented and dried bonito flakes, seaweed (kombu) and soy sauce, all of which are enormously rich in MSG. Meat or fish is then slow cooked with ginger and vegetables and concentrated into a rich stick which is added to this base known as "dashi" (a sort of Japanese counterpart to the Chinese Master Stock). Accordingly, noodles are then cooked separately, rinced in cold water and served in the soup alongside various toppings, including the meat with which the soup was made. 

But what has this all got to do with the death of the noodle and Momofuku Ando? 

In 1908, Kikunae Ikeda at the University of Tokyo managed to isolate and synthesise MSG into a pure crystalline form. This revolutionised the food industry world wide as now, moderate and low quality foods could be given enhanced flavourings. Soups could be rendered into powder and those powders mixed with amounts of MSG that when added to water would create instant soups which were supposed to mimic the quality of a freshly made soup with almost no work. 

Momofuku Ando was of Taiwanese descent and emigrated to Japan in the 1930's and studied at the university there. After the Second World War, food shortages occurred in Japan which lead to the Ministry of Health attempting to persuade the general public to eat bread which had been imported from the US to help with the crisis. However, bread not being a staple of the Japanese diet was highly unpopular yet was mainly comprised of the same ingredients that noodles were made of. After perfecting a flash frying method of cooking and then storing noodles, he founded the Nissin food company which is now one of the most renowned manufacturers of instant foods in the world and with the help of MSG based powdered stocks, released an instant chicken flavoured noodle. Sales rocketed - a cheap and easy way to feed the nation! Senators and students alike!

The side effect of the creation of MSG and the easy manufacturing of cheap noodles meant that traditional cooking was set aside. The popularity and success of the instant noodle propagated the use of MSG into different markets and spheres for the production of all manner of foods, potato snacks, microwave meals and fast food such as McDonalds and Burger King. Mechanically reclaimed meat and vegetables could be pulped and bound with flavour enhancers to produce cheap and tasty foods for the masses while the traditional culinary arts of the home cook disappeared into the background. 

Aside from the social and economic repercussions of the production of MSG towards traditional and natural food, MSG - although FDA approved - was not without it's own fair share of disadvantages and possible health risks. 

MSG behaves by binding itself to the food to which you add it and then breaking down into glutamate derivatives linked to that food. The result is an overall richer taste of that particular ingredient where before the taste was weak. The issue though with this is that all cooking is the result of chemical reactions, when you cook with two ingredients - the flavour is the result of two flavour chemicals combining to a certain degree. Add to that MSG, and then you get an overwhelming taste of which ever ingredient is more in abundance that has not already bound itself to the other remaining ingredient - and those already bound flavours when bound with MSG also become exaggerated. This is the "cheap" or "artifical" taste that you will find in industrially produced foods. 

Although FDA approved, MSG has also been linked to causing obesity in lab rats, causing "chinese restaurant syndrome" where the reward centres of the brain are tricked into associating illness and hangovers and psychosomatically reproducing illness when MSG rich foods are consumed. 

Though MSG and instant foods have helped solved some socio-economic issues in the world, have they not also help perpetuate cultural disintegration and food related health? 

Perhaps think next time you reach for that Pot Noodle or hamburger what it is that you are endorsing.