A Great Tragedy

If you haven't eaten Chinese food in China, you haven't eaten Chinese food. And if you haven't eaten Chinese food cooked by our helper, you're missing out on some of the finest. That's why it's with great sadness that I have gone without it for the last four months.

Why, you ask? Why would I deny myself some of the best Chinese food in the world? Simple deductive reason. Beginning last summer when we moved here, I began developing certain symptoms which, let's just say, are of a feminine nature. They grew progressively worse each month until we went back to Minnesota in December. Over the course of the two months we were there, they gradually faded. The first month back in China, boom - symptoms resurface. Thinking back on the increasing amount of Chinese food I was eating in the fall, the absence of it in MN, the 9 times we ate Chinese food the first week back in China - well, it certainly seemed like a factor.

So my great and sacrificial experiment began - deny myself Chinese food for several months to see what happens. This was difficult to explain to my helper, as I don't have the vocabulary to describe my symptoms. I could only say, "I think I'm allergic to Chinese food" which she thought was insane.

I suspected one of two culprits - the soy or the MSG. Little known wacky fact - soy can mimic hormones in a woman's body. Fairly well known fact here - MSG is nasty stuff you should probably avoid (my helper never adds this, but it is an ingredient in the chicken stock she uses in everything).

Four months later, my symptoms are gone. Now I realize I could ask my helper to make us food without soy or chicken stock, but what's the point of that? I don't want my family to miss out on all that goodness (and really, I don't think the MSG is the problem - it's in everything from granola bars to cereal, just under another name). Easier solution - just cut back on the Chinese food. Sigh.

It is a great tragedy.