🥒🧂 By now, you’ve probably seen cucumber salads taking over your feeds on Instagram and TikTok. Many of these recipes are a close variation of the Asian cucumber salads that we all grew up eating in our restaurants and homes. And guess what? They all include MSG — an ingredient that people used as an excuse to ridicule and shun Asian foods for decades.

So my question is: In this example, is MSG now okay because a white person says so and because it’s not clearly associated with Asian food?  

Truly, my comments are not meant to offend Logan (or anyone else) — it’s clear the internet loves cucumbers just like the rest of us.

But seeing people add MSG to their food without question or consequence makes me wonder if they know how Asians have been shamed and vilified for generations for using the very same ingredient. 

I think this is a fair conversation. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Read Merriam-Webster’s definition of Chinese restaurant syndrome.