Three cheers for Asian supermarkets!
- Thread starter Herbsman.
- Start date
Vintage Paw
dead stare and computer glare
Have I been living under a rock? What's MSG and why *might* it be bad for me? 
I love my local Asian supermarket. They have huge bunches of fresh coriander that smell divine, and tons of garlic going for a song. Everything you could need for a great meal. And tubs of rice so big you could hide a dead body in them
I love my local Asian supermarket. They have huge bunches of fresh coriander that smell divine, and tons of garlic going for a song. Everything you could need for a great meal. And tubs of rice so big you could hide a dead body in them
mrsfran
Well-Known Member
With the garlic I always wonder - who uses that much garlic and how? It's sold in bags, 20 bulbs in a bag - surely by the time you've used half of them they've sprouted and gone bitter?Vintage Paw said:I love my local Asian supermarket. They have huge bunches of fresh coriander that smell divine, and tons of garlic going for a song. Everything you could need for a great meal. And tubs of rice so big you could hide a dead body in them
Vintage Paw
dead stare and computer glare
missfran said:
I often see the local Asian restaurant car parked outside, so I imagine they do a fair bit of trade with them. I'm guessing though.
I have trouble going through a bulb before it goes manky - I get fed up with all the crushing and resort to the good old garlic puree
Errol's son
Well-Known Member
missfran said:
If you only ate Ken Hom recipes every day and had a family of four you would easily get through them.
Perhaps you don't really eat much garlic by others' standards?
Xanadu said:I thought so!
Whenever I've been in indian supermarkets, sure we buy big bags of lentils, rice and spices, but I don't really see why it warrants a thread.
Ah come on, perhaps we're a bit world weary. I do honestly remember quite enjoying the big Asian cash and carrys as a kid. Full of colour, (then) strange looking veg, the smells, the collection of arcane looking cooking utensils and assorted bits and pieces. Far more exciting than the sanitised supermarket environment.
I'm lucky that my folks took me there regularly growing up, before they seemed so widespread. I guess I'd take them less for granted if they hadn't been a part of my life before.
tarannau said:Ah come on, perhaps we're a bit world weary. I do honestly remember quite enjoying the big Asian cash and carrys as a kid. Full of colour, (then) strange looking veg, the smells, the collection of arcane looking cooking utensils and assorted bits and pieces. Far more exciting than the sanitised supermarket environment.
I'm lucky that my folks took me there regularly growing up, before they seemed so widespread. I guess I'd take them less for granted if they hadn't been a part of my life before.
Ah you not wrong there. My parents have been taking me to wembley and southall since I was a baby.
*gets into the spirit of the thread*
I love the way they all smell of dhania.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
You can get MSG in big scary-looking bags of white crystals if you go to a lot of these places. I don't know, I don't see why monosodium glutamate should be intrinsically more scary than sodium chloride.
Not only do I have Shepherds Bush Market just down the road but if I go the other direction there's a fantastic Thai shop, and the area is packed out with Polish delis, so I'm pretty sorted for ingredients personally.
Not only do I have Shepherds Bush Market just down the road but if I go the other direction there's a fantastic Thai shop, and the area is packed out with Polish delis, so I'm pretty sorted for ingredients personally.
stretchy18
New Member
An excellent source of large capacity drums of cooking oil for those of us who prefer our diesel motoring tax free
pogofish
Testicle Hairstyle
spanglechick said:isn't msg high in sodium = incresed likelihood of stroke? (or have i added two and two and got five? - monosodium glutemate)
You have, MSG toxicity/contributary risk to hypertension is @10 times less than salt. Indeed, whilst there are a lot of anecdotal health complaints about MSG, very few, if any of them have been bourne-out by serious studies.
About the only genuine concern is that it can be used to make poor-quality food more appetising & its taste-enhancing properties can desensitise you to the taste of real food. Hence its popularity in industro-shite catering & fast foods of all sorts.
Used with any sense, selectivity & kept in proportion to the rest of your diet, it is probably safe enough to assume it to be quite harmless.
PieEye said:
Look for these Chinese characters:
味精
I would imagine that's pretty much the same in Japanese. Sounds much nicer in Chinese too, the name means 'flavour essence'; it doesn't sound chemically. If we didn't have the word 'salt' and had to call it 'sodium chloride' we'd probably use a lot less of that.
pogofish said:
this is interesting - we use salt primarily as a taste enhancer in the west and yet MSG seems safer in terms of the risks that salt poses to our health.
And I agree with tarannau - I found both varieties of Asian shops fascinating when I first lived around them, although it's just the oriental variety that has me excited anymore. There is just so much unidentifiable stuff in them.
And I'm sure Dub claims that Wing Thai sells dildos behind the counter as well
PieEye said:And I'm sure Dub claims that Wing Thai sells dildos behind the counter as well
they did. and some sort of spanish fly stuff too..
There's a little outcry about Unilever leaving MSG off the list of Marmite ingredients, claiming that it's 'naturally occuring.' Which is arse of course, unless you count processing food by high heats and centrifuges as a natural process. Read more about Marmite's labelling naughtiness here: http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=7405
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