New Denizen

Last week, I opened up a survey to newsletter subscribers + IG story watchers to find out what you’d like to see me tackle in my coverage on New Denizen. Here are my 3 takeaways based on what you said…

✨You are interested in new AND older restaurants.
✨You still want lists!
✨You value authenticity over feeding the algorithm.

Does this track with what you were feeling? Anything else you think I should focus on in the future? Let me know in the comments!

I highlighted five notable restaurants and bakeries that opened in and around Denver and Colorado during the month of March in my latest newsletter on Substack. Featured spots you should know about included:
paperboy (West Highlands)
(Congress Park)
(Parker)
(Cherry Creek)
(Union Station)

plus an illustration I drew of a dish from the tasting menu

For the details on each spot, newsletter subscribers can check their inbox for the email that went out last week. Not on the list? Hit the link in bio.

All 📸 + illustrations:

Decades of misinformation have given Americans the wrong idea about MSG and Chinese food. Let’s set the record straight and bust some myths!

🍅MSG isn’t an artificial chemical. It’s a savory salt made from sodium and glutamate. Glutamate is naturally created in our bodies and found in many common foods like tomatoes.
🧂MSG is used in all sorts of foods and cuisines – not just Chinese food.
🍅The myth of “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” (CRS) began with a single letter to the editor published in the New England Journal of Medicine – not a scientific study. Since then, research has debunked that CRS exists. The FDA and WHO consider MSG safe to use by most people when consumed in normal amounts.
🧂A new wave of Asian American chefs and restaurateurs like , , , are reclaiming the narrative and are proudly pro-MSG.

Some other interesting facts:
🇺🇸The 1968 letter that kicked off MSG and Chinese food misinformation was published three years after the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act that abolished national origin-based immigration quotas and opened the US to immigrants from Asia and other regions.

🥡The building where the Quan family operated the Chinese Rathskeller restaurant (45 Mott St) is now home to ’s .

I got curious about verifying what I’d heard about MSG after learning psychological, media, and scientific literacy skills from during my fellowship. I was positively shocked to see just how wrong the reporting was in 1968 (!!!). I’d love for fellow NCC community members and to weigh in with their thoughts.

Additional thanks to for inspiring me to dig even further into the origins of the MSG misinformation story.

All 📸: