City Impressions, Finding An "MSG - Free" Thai Street Food and An "Alcohol - Free" Tiramisu
Though it's just a two hour drive away from our city, am surprised to find a bit of "Oranje's" tracks in the city center of Wuppertal.
I was hoping that wind vane would turn to confirm that it does look like that of the "Oranje" emblem that I see in here.
I wonder if it's just me or do you also see the tulips on this picture? Do you? Do you?
It's not just that, I could even understand the languages some of the passerby's speak, it sounds like what we speak back home. How many Dutch actually live here? (grin)
Famished after that speedy drive and a long day of work, we headed for the city center to have dinner and were both very surprised at how international this place actually is. I've seen skins of all color and heard familiar languages from the continent I was born in. It felt like Berlin just less busy cause it's also very very crowded. Plenty of people sitting on the side of the roads, you could tell they're not from here.
We walked around looking for a place to eat, and finally ended up in a Thai Resto. I was actually surprised but glad to have found one. I was worried that I'd be eating plenty of bread, potatoes and salad during this short trip like we did when we stayed for a week in Berlin (not that Berlin didn't have any Asian kitchen just the restos close to the places we went to there did not) so I was more than happy when we found it. It's at the end of the alley we strutted into, close to the market.
Speaking of the market, it was open that day and we're surprised that they just leave the stalls there cause in our city's case, they tidy up and empty the whole place once the market day is over. I wonder if there was a market the next day as well.
Anyway, we somehow hesitated going in that Thai resto cause it says "street food " blah ~~ blah ~~ but the menu convinced us otherwise. It says - processed/ synthetic MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE FREE! just in German.
I'm impressed! More so, the food looks like these. These were just the appetizers - my order of chicken and shrimp summer spring roll and hubby's order of a vegetarian spring roll! They were very very delicious even without that MSG.
Most Asian kitchen uses that so every time we order Asian food online or in a resto we always ask or tell them, "No vetsin, processed/ synthetic MSG, E-621 or "smaak versterker" please. Thankfully, it's always been respected and openly some admit that all their food have that so finding that processed/ synthetic MSG - Free highlight on the menu was enough reason to eat there.
Honestly, I don't understand why restos need MSG - it does enhance the food taste but the danger it brings to the body on a constant use is not worth it.
processed/ synthetic MSG IS BAD!
Can you shout out in the comment why? First ones would get a 1% up. I dare you!
That night I ended up coveting my husband's main course of chicken curry noodles and I didn't get to finish my fish in a tamarind's sauce because the summer spring rolls were already heavy while my husband licked his plate clean though not literally so no proof or yum plus I really forgot to take any, hahaha.
Btw, I don't know whether this is just my theory but I noticed that in almost all the cities we visited in Germany, most of the food servings are considerably for two people cause even though my husband and I are both big eaters, we both struggled finishing them though they were very very delicious. I only eat till I'm 80% full and it's not little, am almost Korean when it comes to "eating a lot".
I thought the city would be empty and quiet after we left the Thai resto but it was still a bit crowded. I was craving for coffee so we looked around for a cafe and I was tempted with a tiramisu and almost all of the cakes on their dessert choices. They all look so damn delicious, more than the tiramisu I had to pacify my craving eyes, lol.
Btw, the tiramisu, it was such a big chunk(almost the size of my husband's coffee!!) so we asked if they'd be kind to cut it into half and were surprised when they did not just do that, they even plated the slices individually!!! That's plus points for such kindness and great service huh!
That doesn't always happen, the normalcy is they would slice it into two but won't give you a separate plate. Btw, can you guess which coffee I had? 1% up to the first one who'd be able to.
When I took a bite on that tiramisu, I noticed the lack of bitterness though it's just perfectly sweet enough and not too sweet. I finished it and finally saw the baklava for sale board ad outside and realized why there was no alcohol in it.
Wuppertal is surely full of surprises I wish I could find most of those restos in the other places I'm going to in the future. It's not very often you find restos and cafe that takes food allergy, healthy preferences and even "faith" into consideration. Btw, these are all based on my personal experiences when I visited the city center of Wuppertal.
Thank you for posting @englishtchrivy.
Lovely photographs and reporting.......a very fine time out on the town.
Was your coffee the large cool one?
The food looks scrumptious....mon ami. ^__^
Oh yes....what is not to like when it comes to Chicken Curry.
Wishing you all the best. ^__^
Cheers.
thank you!
hi lovely to see you around mon ami :)
they were yummilicious :)
yes the large one :D can you guess what that is, too? :D
Greetings......certainly it was non-alcoholic......something mint?
I am trying to remember one of your other outings with such a refreshment. hehe.....^__^
Looks very freshing....mon ami.
Good to 'see' you.
A bientot.
xox
hihi
definitely alcohol free mon ami
latte macchiato ^ ^
mint for tea :)
let's have a cuppa!
on the other hand pass for the cuppa
let's try tomorrow, now time to sleep
someone's been pulling my shirt to go to bed already hahaha
I guess am giving in now
time to recharge that VI anyway
see you in the morrow
xox!
the Daily "Spotlight"!
thank you!
when judging by the images this was an incredible walk, enjoy the architecture of the place is simply beautiful, the dishes look very delicious and abundant, very good choice of dessert.
congratulations for choosing the ride dear friend @ englishtchrivy and the beautiful catches, thank you very much for showing us.
I wish you a prosperous week
thank you
I hope you had one, too :)
very good your photos friend, it's a big city
it actually is
I thought it was small till I get there :D
Looks like someone already guessed the coffee correctly.
Why is MSG bad?
Fear
Persistent myths about it being bad for you causes a psychosomatic reaction in some people that have been exposed to those myths.
It's found naturally in all kinds of foods.
It's safer than salt.
Lethal Dose 50 (LD 50) is 18g/kg for MSG whereas salt has a LD 50 of 3g/kg.
I'd need to eat over a kilo in one go! But only 195g of salt.
It's bad for the restaurant because as you wrote above, some people won't eat there if there is MSG in the food. Well added to the food, it's already in the tomatoes etc.
Really the precursor of labeling things "organic", "non-GMO", "natural"; it's marketing.
Of course sources MSG!
Wikipedia links to all kinds of studies as well.
Oh the food and town do look great too btw! :)
thank you for your comment
because of this I realized I wasn't specific enough
I will have to edit the post after replying to you
I'm referring to the processed/ synthetic MSG or what they call E-621
BTW, this food preference and the choice of not eating/ avoiding it (cause it is in mostly processed food unfortunately and some don't put that on the labels and manage to get away with it) is not fueled by fear
I used to eat MSG back when I moved in with my folks cause they live in the city
but I stopped it when I got aware of the bad effects it gives the body specifically our brains
it's neurotoxic says a few of my health buff friends and doctor friends because back then I was trying to eat healthy since I have severe food allergies and sensitivities but not everyone is like me of course
on the other hand, I surely am not the only one who has that in Steemit :)
so I stopped for so many years but eating out specially here - with friends, sometimes make you eat that unconsciously I could tell that my food had it because I get migraine and a very dry tongue -
everything that's too much is bad whether its salt or sugar or any seasoning actually
you're right on that
as for labeling things organic/ non GMO, all natural and so on it's not pure marketing here
I don't think so - perhaps in other continents but in the EU there are plenty of groups pursuing the GMOs being labeled and getting the organic tag isn't that easy as far as I know
I just don't get why it's too expensive - cause I'm growing organic food and it's not really that hard but okay am not growing a farm
as for the MSG it's true there's a natural glutamate present on many food
but people should beware of the synthetic one
and I looked up the net for you to find something that would support my belief that it has no health benefits and it's main purpose is to trick your brain to thinking what you're eating is delicious
I bumped into this link it's about one of the most recent studies on synthetic MSG's side effects - it's not mine but am not a chemist so I'd rather listen to the professionals :)
Seems there is only one form of glutamate, once MSG or any other glutamate salt enters water, it dissolves into a glutamate ion and whatever the other part was, in MSG's case it's a sodium ion. Source and interesting debunking of the MSG mythos there's heaps of citations too.
GMOs are safe, there have been many huge studies done about it.
non-GMO is pure labeling as nearly everything we eat has been modified (selective breeding is modifying the genetic code of the organism), the "scary part" is transgenic modifications, which makes no sense at all: using transgenic technology makes the changes predictable. It's also responsible for life saving things like insulin; we no longer need 10,000 pounds of of pancreases to make 1 pound of insulin, don't need to slaughter calves to make cheese because GMO yeast can produce renin.
It's more expensive because "organic" farming is not the same as your garden where you don't use chemicals even though that is the image associated with the word "organic"; non-synthetic pesticides are used, sometimes these are both more expensive, more helpful and less effective than their synthetic counterparts.
It's more expensive because people will pay more for the clean "organic" image.
Increases in efficiency, yield, hardiness, nutritional value due to transgenic-GMOs have saved countless lives and could do even more if not hampered by anti-science groups.
if you've read the link I posted there
I believe they've discussed the difference between synthetic and natural
I can snack on a whole kilos of snack tomatoes or have them on my salads and pasta sauces and not suffer from migraine nor dry tongue so surely they do not have the same effect no matter which scientist would claim they're the same it's not what I have experienced
As for GMOs it would be pointless to exchange links here but if one keys in "bad effects of GMOs" the net is loaded with articles written by scientists themselves
just in case someone else gets interested I'd rather not quote any fact but highly recommend they read themselves, they may want to check out articles about GMOs published by responsibletechnology.org
You are right that there are myths about GMOs and the many of them are far fetched but who knows who wrote those , they could also be those who are also pursuing for GMOs to be accepted we'll never know
I do not agree that GMO is safe
and I didn't just wake up one day and decide I don't from then on
I've done my own researches, attended seminars, read mags written by scientists themselves plus I live close to a city where a Univ that researches on stuff like GMOs, hybrid and everything that concerns agriculture publishes the results to the public and the researchers there are renowned scientists themselves so it would be hard to convince me that it's safe though I am open to the fact that things could change because this world changes over time and possibilities are immeasurable
when the time comes that a responsible scientist manages to make the process of creating a GMO harmful antigen free and proves that the created organism is safe then I would probably change my mind and my perception of it
I would rather not argue with you about it being safe or not because obviously our opinions differ so we won't be able to achieve anything if we continue imho
but I respect the fact that you are allowed to think that it is
like I am allowed to think that it's not
From the article you linked:
So it isn't how it's made but the glutamate, according to them, that is the problem.
Glutamate is throughout our cells, is the most common neurotransmitter in our brains.
From Wikipedia glutamic acid
You don't need to eat it, your body makes plenty on its own; if you do eat it, the body deals with it the same way as the glutamate it makes itself. D-glutamate is not made by higher mammals but we get plenty from the gut bacteria in our intestines.
Not trying to be argumentative but I don't understand why you cling to this myth when all the credible evidence points to it being safe.
How are GMOs dangerous?
Many sites claim they are a danger but never say how, never produce supporting verifiable evidence. They'll sell you a book though!
Now that's looks like you had an awesomelicious day too good food :D yummy
I did :)
Seems like the food has really attracted you out in the city ;)
more than the scenarios I should say ;)
not really
it just so happen that it was too crowded
hard to take pics
plus we went there to have dinner, too :)
Ohhhh damn ... you just killed me with photos 😁😂😂😂. I can see that we have similar tastes: latte, tiramissu.... I would die for these thai shrimps now 😭😭😭 and spring rolls.... yummy...
oh no!
stay alive hahahaha
I won't give you any summer rolls then
if you'd die for them lol
they were really delicious
you must have tried it in Thailand yeah?
Imagine the same sauce - it's the sauce that makes it so yummy
the combi of vinegar, salt, garlic, onion, chili and honey
aw, am drooling right now with just the thought :D
Oh yes! I remember it was very tasty! I adore thai food, especially with sea food 😁😁😁. For me it's just perfect!