Well, you might be talking about seafood in Jakarta. or from Chinese restaurant anywhere, where they typically will add a lof of msgs. You could get the fresh, non Chinese food, simply grill or fry it, so there will be no msgs added. But that is the problem with msgs is not just Chinese, Japanese food in Indonesia but anywhere in the world as these restaurant typically add msgs to enhance the flavours. But even you eat such as "Padang Restaurants" west Sumatran cuisines in Indonesia you will still get a small amount of msgs. In instant Noodle they rely on msgs to add the flavour, many Indonesian people eat a lot of instant noodles, so that is add the amount of daily intake of msgs.
If you want cheap seafood around Jakarta, without msgs added than avoid Chinese food. Also in "Dadap" Tangerang, there is "murah meriah (cheap & cheerfull) seafood so the Indonesians name it. But in Jakarta while you might be getting away with msgs problem, there will be another problem e.g diarrhoea, something to do with hygienic preparation and the contamination. The marine animals might have been contaminated by industrial wage dumped in the sewage, canals, rivers which will be ending up in the sea.
But in the videos with links I posted earlier, eating seafood in Bali, around Jimbaran Bay is another instance, where there is no msgs added, if you do not want to. There will be no msgs added as it could be just grilled, fried from fresh without the need to add any flavour. Also the seafood are less likely to be contaminated if they are are sourced from Bali / lombok catchman areas. I am aware that in the past, in some occasions they were preserved using formalin but I understand this has been made illegal since a few years ago to serve food preserved in formalin. You could also choose it directly from the fish tanks, cool-boxes, so you see it directly what you will eat.
Another example is the one in Makassar where I have posted the Link. Again relatively "murah meriah (cheap & cheerful)" as Indonesian people call it.
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