Somehow, your local Chinese takeout makes everything taste so good. Here's why recreating your favorite takeout dishes at home just isn't always as tasty.
Over a century ago, Japanese seasoning company Ajinomoto found itself entangled in a bizarre rumor — that its flagship monosodium glutamate (MSG) product, Aji-No-Moto, was concocted from snakes. Flavor enhancer: First developed in 1908 by Japanese biochemist Kikunae Ikeda, MSG is known to enhance food’s flavor by complementing its other tastes. The bizarre myth that the seasoning was made from snakes emerged within a decade of it hitting store shelves in 1909.