I didn’t have Chinese food until my wife, then girlfriend, introduced it to me in my twenties. A Chinese restaurant was opened in my small hometown when I was in my teens, but we never partook. I’m not sure why.

I didn’t cook until, again, my teens, but at that point I literally had to ask how to boil water for hot dogs. My family was fairly progressive, so “Chinese salt” never came up, but MSG was definitely beyond me.