Hi everyone. I’m in Taipei for the next two months as an exchange student. I really like it here, but unfortunately I’m allergic to MSG, which makes finding food without spending more than I want to pretty hard. Maybe I have unrealistic expectations about how much food should cost, but I’m usually paying around $300NTD per meal. Does anyone have any experiences with an MSG allergy, or have any suggestions? I’ve kind of just blindly assumed I can’t eat anything from street stalls or night markets, since a lot of it is premade or there might be MSG on the cooking surface. If anyone has any suggestions for places to eat, experience dealing with an MSG allergy here, or just wants to give me a wake up call for how much food should cost, please let me know. Thanks!
Some of the western fast-food places are affordable and use less MSG. Give them a try!
Actually, expensive restaurants are just as likely to use msg as cheaper ones. The real answer to your question is to go in and ask. Some places are more than willing to leave it out. Unfortunately, some places will lie. You just have to suffer and never go back 
Places that do things like fried noodles/rice are really good (and cheap) because they cook the food there and then and so it’s easy for them to it leave out.
If it’s a challenge to ask in Chinese, find a teacher or Taiwanese student who can write it down on a piece of card for you to show them.
Soups are especially dangerous, they are usually loaded with msg.
If you’re looking to buy processed food, then look out for this: 味精 and avoid.
Eat bread. I’ve found that has less MSG.
Eat sandwiches. Don’t think subway has MSG, at least not in my experience.
Eat salads.
And of course, Learn to cook.
Short version, is probably avoid processed food (e.g. Doritos and Pringles). Ditto Parmesan and deli meats (so that’s Subway out, unless you get veggie subs). Tomatoes too. And miso and green tea and shiitake mushrooms and kimchi and cheddar. Um, maybe don’t eat out. I don’t know how much you can rely on avoiding 味精 on the ingredients list, because it may just be “invisibly” listed under other seasonings.
Damn, I didn’t realize it was that tough to avoid. That’s a bugger of an allergy.
A few other threads, from here and elsewhere, that may be helpful:
https://taiwaneasy.tw/tw/forums/finding-nut-free-dairy-free-and-msg-free-food-t8707.html
Most places probably.
The easy way to avoid this issue is to say you have an intolerance to MSG.
Kind of like asking a cake maker to leave out the eggs. Its just part of the recipe. If you don’t want eggs, don’t eat the cake.
When you’re in a restaurant, it will probably be met with a blank stare. It’s simpler and easier to say you have an allergy - it’s something they understand.
Yeah, I will be cooking at home as much as possible. I’ll be taking intensive chinese courses and have an internship, so eating out won’t be something I can avoid the entire time I’m here.
Another yawn!
One of the joys of travelling to Tainan is that almost nobody uses it there in their food, unlike Taipei. MSG is used to add flavour. But a cook actually doesn’t need to use it.
As I mentioned earlier, a lot of cooks are willing to leave it out if you ask because it’s not an essential part of the cooking process.
Thanks so much for these links! I was looking for something like that before but couldn’t find any. I’ll definitely check them out
Actually, most people in Taiwan are very nice and won’t. Servers will also take the time to ask the kitchen if they don’t know. But there are always exceptions…
They may be willing to avoid the concentrated stuff, but the cook should probably be instructed that you mean no tomatoes, no soy sauce, no miso, no fish sauce, no shiitake mushrooms, no seaweed, no Parmesan, no cheddar, etc. - because those have naturally occurring MSG. If you’re sensitive to it, then you’ve got a shit-ton of stuff to avoid, and cooks are going to need detailed instructions.
Probably not far off having a sugar or salt or water sensitivity, if such things exist. You can tell the chef not to add any, but it’s going to be damn hard to find ingredients that don’t include them.
buyao weijing
Don’t forget to tell them to hold the breast milk, while you’re at it.
That explains all the weird dreams I keep having.
Millions of little Chinese babies with itchy shoulders…
Some mayo here has MSG. Local canned tuna too.
If your Chinese is up to the task, most places that do not use MSG will advertise it as a perk. Next to the obligatory which kind of beef they use.