MSG

I walked out of my apartment building into a sauna that smelled strangely of piss. Oh HK humidity.

***

Somehow I have this notion that MSG is very, very bad for you and and should be avoided at all costs, but the truth about MSG is that it's very, very delicious. It's a seasoning as common as salt in Japan, it's what adds that unctuous flavor known as umami. It's why ramen broth and udon and bentos taste so good in Japan.

My favorite restaurant in HK is a tiny shoebox of a Sichuan restaurant that serves up the most fiery hot food I've had outside of Sichuan province. Their food is ridiculously, addictively delicious and it was recently brought to my attention by a friend that the food is loaded with MSG. At first I adamantly defended my favorite eating institution and balked at such slander, but then I realized that their food probably does have MSG in it, loads and loads of it, and that's why it tastes so delicious (and why I get so sleepy and bloated and crave sweets afterward). So while I generally avoid MSG, I make a blanket exception for my favorite restaurant because eating there brings me so much gastronomic joy.

***

This time last year, I was getting ready to depart Tokyo and embark on a backpacking trip through Europe and Asia with El Hombre. Whereas in Tokyo, the days moved by excruciatingly slowly and I was totally over it after 6 months, in HK, I feel like the days move by way too quickly and while I'm not as enamored of it as I was when I first arrived, HK continues to surprise me and delight me.