As a general rule, neither Thai nor Indian food use MSG. You can usually google the name of the food court place and find out. Happy eating! 
I don’t know about Thai-restaurant practices in the US, but Thais use MSG by the bucket here in Thailand. Again though, I don’t care, because I think MSG allergies are a myth.
Not here - but now I know to DEFINITELY bring my Imitrex if I come out there (again, not an allergy).
It’s used as a flavor enhancer here, which I guess is what it’s used for elsewhere too. I liken it to salt. But never mind the spoonfuls the Thais throw in while cooking, fish sauce and soy sauce come loaded with it. And doesn’t it occur in naturally high levels in some foods anyway such as corn, peas and mushrooms?
I’m a little dubious that Thai restaurants in the US would forgo it unless the proprietors are tapped into American health fears. Or maybe they just lie about not using it. It’s like so-called vegetarian food in Thailand – much of it is cooked in lard anyway, thereby defeating the purpose.
Unless it is printed on the menu or on a sign, it’s safe to assume any given Chinese cook uses MSG by the bucket. It is as ubiquitous as salt, and is almost always added as an all-purpose flavor enhancer as well as a table condiment. Any time that you would add salt, a Chinese chef is probably adding salt and MSG.
The few exceptions would be restaurants catering to foreigners avoiding MSG, and die-hard foodies who consider MSG to be a bit of a cheap trick.
By “table condiment,” do you mean soy sauce? I don’t think I’ve ever seen MSG as a table condiment by itself.
In Sichuan, at least, you’ll often find it on the table in a little pot next to the salt.
I didn’t think about when I posted about the local dearth of dim sum, but around here some Chinese buffets will actually put dim sum out on the buffet line. It’s pretty limited – really only the small ground-pork filled dumplings and occasionally the turnip ones. One local buffet does (or used to do) the “BBQ pork” filled buns. I’ve seen a few buffets attempt chicken feet, too, but they never seem to get touched.
It’s the dim sum cart service which is especially rare around here. Once factor may be that a strong majority of local “Chinese food” places (even the swank ones) are run by Vietnamese families for whom dim sum is not a tradition.
Where in LA? I’m about to make a trip there, and this thread got me very excited because I’d forgotten dim sum on my list of food places to hit up. And then I discovered that my favorite source in LA (Empress Pavilion) no longer does dim sum.
Guess I need to hit up the SGV if I’m going to go that route.
Dude, let me know when you’re in town, I will gladly dim sum with you!
If I can make the time on this trip, you’re on!
Hong Kong Bakery on Vermont in Torrance is where I got the best BBQ pork buns, but they don’t have dim sum carts. Golden Dragon in Chinatown is not bad. I wish I could come to LA and join you guys. Have a great time.
As long as we’re comparing notes… I figured I had been exposed to some of the best dim sum since my first experiences were in SF’s Chinatown. And, there are so many good places even in the South Bay where you’ll find 90% of the patrons are Chinese.
But on my trip to Hong Kong, I was taken to a dim sum place (don’t know the name) that put all of those to shame. Christ on a pork bun, that stuff was just out of this world!! Any trip to that city has to include at least one dim sum meal, if not one such meal every day!
Peninsula has the best dim sum in the bay area. SF Chinatown is for tourists. Many of the peninsula restaurants will not only import their cooking equipment, but will also import their chefs!
When I visited China, I went to several restaurants that had no English speaking staff, nor an English menu. I ordered by randomly selecting items in Chinese, or pointing awkwardly at what another person was eating. It was so cheap I didn’t mind ordering 2 or 3 entrees.
Here, dim sum is mostly a brunch/lunch kind of thing. When I was in China there were 24/7 dim sum places and man they were amazing.
Dopefest, perhaps?
Even if it were printed on the menu, I wouldn’t be at all confident that your meal doesn’t contain MSG. A lot of Asian chefs are completely unaware that stuff like the ubiquitous chicken powder or maggi seasoning are basically flavored MSG. I’ve been to a ton of “we proudly cook with no MSG” restaurants that have a big tub of chicken powder proudly on the line.
This is why I’m always so suspicious of the MSG sensitivity claim. If you truly had a MSG sensitivity, you would end up being triggered way more than you claimed to be because MSG pops up in so many unexpected places in our diet.
I have my doubts since it would almost certainly have to be on a weeknight, but once my schedule shakes out, I’ll let you know.
Vancouver also has awesome Dim Sum - and, it’s not halfway around the globe!
Everybody Dim Sum tonight!
Singin’ dollar dollar bill y’all (dollar, dollar bill y’all) . . .
This post makes my mouth water. I’m a WASPY looking guy, but my step-mom is Chinese, and we went to Dim Sum every weekend when I was a teenager. I haven’t been in years!
Some of my favorites:
Egg Tarts
Egg Custard Bun
Sponge Cake (it’s like angel food cake)
Turnip cake (mmm…turnip cake)
Shrimp dumplings (actually, any shrimp that is wrapped in something and in a sauce is good)
Fried Tofu Skins
And Dim Sum is where I was introduced to Sriracha sauce (what my Dad called “Rooster Sauce”, because of the bottle), which is the perfect condiment to compliment the savory dishes.
Dammit, now I have to find Dim Sum in Denver.
ETA: Super Star Asian Cuisine…open 7 days a week…broken English on the website…they have carts…perfect!!!