Yesterday Barbara of the award-winning food blog Tigers and Strawberries did something in her kitchen that might surprise a lot of people. She opened a bottle of Aji-no-moto (MSG) and sprinkled the tiniest bit into some pork noodle soup she was serving her family. And then, as if that wasn't shocking enough, she confessed on her food blog that she had used MSG. Deliberately. With no harmful effects. And she said it did make the food taste better. In the comments Barbara later clarified that she has no plans to start using MSG regularly to flavor her food, but it did get me to to thinking.