[yomly]

Exactly - it's definitely not racism. I do experience "chinese restaurant syndrome" (maybe the name is prejudiced???) when I get dim sum in the UK, US, Canada, sometimes Singapore but rarely in Hong Kong. Stuff like 豉汁蒸排骨 and 糯米鸡can be the worst. Generally, I dislike cantonese restaurant food outside of China/HK and that's really not racist given I have cantonese origins. I experience "Chinese restaurant syndrome" less when I consume "mainland" chinese food - like Sichuan, Hunan, Xinjiang, Shanxi food.

Who knows whether it's MSG - I definitely don't experience that lethargy eating Japanese food. But I'm also unconvinced that MSG and konbu/katsuo dashi are the same thing. The viewpoint "chemical x is chemical x in all its delivery mechanisms" is remarkably naive. The chemistry of digestion is really quite complex and the purified salt of something rather than in-aqua extraction to direct consumption REALLY is not the same thing. You ignore all kinds of subtle interactions that could be going on and is wholly unnuanced. Anyone who has spent any time in a chem/biochem lab knows all too well the strange and weird world of solvation and impurity and its effects on reactions, not to mention enzyme chemistry is insanely sensitive.

It's not the same but just compare smooth vs pulpy orange juice vs eating a raw orange. The nutrition profiles of that already are different even if you are par for #oranges consumed.