You can ask Chinese restaurants to leave out the MSG.

When you say that you're buying Chinese ingredients a little at a time, what do you mean? You can do great Chinese cooking with nothing fancier than soy sauce.

What do people think about naturally-occurring MSG, in things like soy sauce, stock and so forth? The nearest I get to MSG is using soy sauce and Marigold bouillon powder, as I eat a wholefoods diet. Apparently glutamates turn up in all sorts of foods.