MSG

What do you imagine from the letters MSG? One day, my fiends were talking about MSG. When I heard the word “MSG”, it first reminded me of the Michael Schenker Group. Of course, I realized the correct meaning from the context of the conversation. I used to play bass guitar in a band, so MSG reminds me of Michael Schenker’s flying V guitar. Aside from that, MSG stands for monosodium glutamate. I sometimes taste of MSG when I have ramen in a Bay Area restaurant. In Japan, MSG tends to no longer be used in ramen restaurants nowadays. When we make tasty ramen soup with no MSG, it needs a long time to make a full flavor soup. So MSG was commonly used. However, recently consumers prefer the taste of real ingredients, in particular younger people and younger owners of ramen restaurants.

I’ve been here in California for 6 months. I don’t get homesick, but I miss Ramen with no MSG. I especially miss “Tonkotsu-Gyokai” soup ramen. Tonkotsu means “pork born” and the soup made from boiling pork bones. Gyokai means seafood and the soup made from a variety of ingredients such as kelp, skipjack fish flakes, dried baby sardines and so on. In Tokyo, the combination of pork stock and seafood stock has become popular because this new combination gives the soup a rich taste. I love it, but I can’t find this flavor in the Bay Area. Ramen has been evolving in Japan. What can I do? Maybe I should make ramen soup and noodles by myself and try to invest a new flavor from American ingredients.