I've started catching up on books that have been on my shelf for over a decade. Mostly through with Harold McGee's "The Curious Cook" (1990) and can't resist sharing this passage.

Today any cook can explore the virtuosic nature of the Maillard reaction, thanks to those strange modern emporiums known as "health food stores". Many of them sell capsules of individual amino acids in powdered form. The idea they're valuable nutritional supplements is nonsense - anyone who can afford to pay five dollars for thirty half-gram capsules probably already consumes more than enough protein. But the amino acids are fun to play with on the stove.

I've always wondered what "health food stores" were good for, now I know!