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The Asian continent, South Asian subcontinent, and Pacific Islands make up incredibly rich and diverse ethnic, geographic, and culinary areas. As an introduction to some of the flavors and food traditions across Asia and these communities, we are exploring two flavors typically associated with China. Why now? Because May is Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. This is a time to acknowledge and appreciate historical and cultural contributions made by people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent. Illinois has roughly the fifth largest population of Asian Americans in the United States. In Skokie, at least 28% of us identify as AAPI, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.

China and Flavor Profiles

China has a culinary basis in five flavors: sour, bitter, sweet, pungent (or acrid), and salty (or umami). In Invitation to a Banquet: the Story of Chinese Food by Fuchsia Dunlop, the importance of all five tastes is explained:

“Balancing or ‘harmonizing’ flavours has been one of the crucial skills of the Chinese chef since ancient times, along with huohou, the control of heat. ‘In the task of harmonizing and blending one must use the sweet, sour, bitter, acrid, and salty. The balancing of what should be added first or last and of whether to use more or less, is very subtle, as each variation gives rise to its own effect.’ Not for nothing is one of the main Chinese words for cooking pengtiao—‘to cook and to blend.’” (p. 222)

The inclusion of the acrid/pungent flavor is an important distinction from the four typical flavors of the West. This acrid/pungent flavor emphasizes spice with ingredients like ginger, cinnamon, chiles, and black pepper.

Five Spice

The spices included in five-spice powder blends can vary widely depending on where it is made. Five spice also does not necessarily need to be exactly five spices. The goal is a warm, aromatic blend that can be used as a dry rub for meats and poultry, in sauces or stir-fries, and even in desserts. It offers a sweet, savory, and slightly spicy flavor.

Five-spice blends are most commonly a mix of star anise, cloves, cinnamon, fennel seeds, and Sichuan peppercorns. Su-Jit Lin for Simply Recipes adds that a blend of the following may substitute for the Sichuan peppercorns: ginger, nutmeg, turmeric, cardamom, licorice root, or white pepper. Southern China blends often incorporate dried mandarin or orange peel (chenpi) instead of cloves, which can provide a brighter taste.

Cooking with Five Spice

The flavors and specific ingredients in five-spice blends may also be associated with herbal medicinal practices in traditional Chinese medicine. Fuschia Dunlop shares:

“The earliest known Chinese recipes are actually medical prescriptions: the ‘Recipes for 52 ailments,’ written on silk, were found in the Han Dynasty tombs at Mawangdui. The recipes were an early expression of the concept, still current, of yangsheng, ‘nourishing life’—of nurturing the body’s qi or vital energy through eating the right foods” (p. 63).

It was possible to get the mixture of spices at a Chinese herbal medicine shop, “just like filling an herbal prescription.” And because five spice is seen as such a good mixture of flavors, it can also be used when thinking about yin (cool) and yang (warm), which are principles used to balance the body (The Chinese Kitchen, Eileen Yin-Fei Lo).

Five spice can be quite strong and is used sparingly. It pairs very well with meat or tofu, but can be used in many other dishes. Below are some possible ways to try adding it to your cooking:

• The Spruce Eats: Chinese five-spice baked tofu recipe. After being marinated, the tofu can be used in stir-fries, salads, or as a quick snack.
• As a marinade, try easy five-spice baked chicken from the Woks of Life.
• For something sweet, this Chinese five-spice cake is a delicious, slightly unconventional spice cake.

MSG

Monosodium glutamate (MSG) on its own doesn’t have a distinct flavor and is only faintly salty. With a white, crystalline appearance similar to salt, it is odorless, water-soluble, and incorporates quickly into other ingredients. 

MSG is a naturally occurring sodium salt of glutamic acid, which is an amino acid and one of the building blocks of protein. Glutamic acid is found in many foods like parmesan cheese, anchovies, and tomatoes. There is no chemical difference between the glutamic acid produced in nature and that found in MSG.

German chemist Karl Heinrich Ritthausen first identified MSG in 1866. In 1908, Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda of Tokyo Imperial University “became fascinated by the deliciousness of broths made from kelp seaweed, and sought to establish its chemical source” (Dunlop, p. 214).

Ikeda isolated the glutamate from the seaweed Laminaria japonica and experimented with creating a crystalline salt of glutamic acid. He described MSG using the term "umami," derived from a colloquial masculine word in Japanese meaning “tasty.” Umami has since been adopted as a basic element of taste and flavor that refers to a certain satisfying savoriness. 

The Japanese company Ajinomoto patented MSG and began manufacturing it. It became particularly useful to American canned food manufacturers, chief among them the Campbell’s Soup Company. In Japan and other Asian countries, it was seen early on in small salt-shakers for individual use, but for the United States, “it crossed the Pacific to North America in crates containing 10-pound tins bound for industrial customers” (A Short History of MSG).

Cooking with MSG

As MSG was becoming a popular food additive in the processed food industry, Chinese restaurants also started becoming popular across the United States. Fuchsia Dunlop helps explain the connection to Chinese food:

“MSG seems to have become popular in China in the 1960s and ‘70s, a time of hardship and rationing when meat was scarce. Sourcing the ingredients for a proper stock was prohibitively expensive for most people, but the fine white powder of the Chinese named weijing, ‘the essence of taste,’ offered a shortcut to flavour” (p. 214).

MSG became a common flavor tool across Chinese cooking in China and the United States through the Chinese diaspora. Today, Ajinomoto creates MSG by fermenting local sources of sugar from carbohydrates. In the United States, this typically means corn. Elsewhere, sugar beets, tapioca, or sugar cane are used.

Learn more about the history of MSG in the United States, including how it was targeted by xenophobic health concerns, in Anna Maria Barry-Jester’s 2016 piece for FiveThirtyEight and this SciShow video.

Ajinomoto, the brand name for MSG, means “essence of taste,” which is fitting, because MSG is now known as an almost magic intensifier of flavor. When using MSG, think of it as a way to enhance flavor. One easy way is to use less salt than you normally would and replace it with MSG (e.g., ⅔ salt, ⅓ MSG). 

It can also be a flavorful addition to nearly every dish. Start with a small sprinkle into your pasta sauce or scrambled eggs, or add it to buttered popcorn to test different amounts. From Bonnie’s, a Cantonese American restaurant in Brooklyn, we now know MSG can be added to a martini. You can also use MSG in your favorite Chinese and Chinese-inspired dishes:

• Add to the sauce of your favorite lo mein recipe.
• In this salted MSG caramel sauce, the MSG keeps it from being too sweet and creates a satisfying depth.

Start small, and embrace the umami.

Keep Cooking, Keep Connecting

This blog post is meant to whet your appetite to explore and understand flavor, spice, and cooking across Asia and in AAPI communities. To continue exploring flavors related to Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, consider looking at India’s spice blend garam masala, yuzu citrus from Japan, or Hawaii’s Li Hing Mui powder. If you'd like to take it one step further, try building your own curry with cook Anupy Singla. 

Learn more about cooking with flavors from China with the library’s cookbook collection. Some suggestions are Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking, Chinese Kitchen, and The Five Elements Cookbook. 

During May, we'll have free jars of five-spice powder and MSG on the second floor, while supplies last.