Glutamate flavoring the neck, gradually radiating to both arms and the back, general weakness and palpitations... The syndrome is often abbreviated as CRS and also became known under the names Chinese food syndrome and monosodium glutamate symptom complex. Symptoms attributed to the Chinese restaurant syndrome have been determined to be false. Although many people believe that monosodium glutamate (MSG) is the cause of these symptoms, an association has never been demonstrated under rigorously controlled conditions, even in studies with people who were convinced that they were sensitive to the compound. Techniques used to adequately control for experimental bias include a placebo-controlled double-blinded
Chinese Canadians in the Greater Toronto Area first association of Chinese-operated, Western-style restaurant owners association in Toronto was established in 1923. By the late 1950s larger, fancier restaurants had opened in the Chinatown in Toronto, and several of them catered to non-Chinese. Fatima Lee, the author of "Food as an Ethnic Marker: Chinese Restaurant Food in Toronto," wrote that after large numbers of educated, skilled Chinese arrived in the post-1967 period, the quality of food at Toronto's Chinese restaurants "markedly improved". The first Hong Kong-style restaurant to open in the city was "International Chinese Restaurant" () on Dundas Street. In 1989 the "Chinese Business Telephone Directories" listed