Comments on: Why cilantro-haters hate cilantro

By: Halloween_Jack

Halloween_Jack — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 02:32:00 +0000

People’s taste buds do change over time; usually, it’s just a matter of them dying out and not being replaced. (Something to remember if your kids seem excessively finicky when it comes to certain foods.) I used to not be able to tolerate sauerkraut or hops in beer.

By: Itsumishi

Itsumishi — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 23:54:00 +0000

because those leaves make a good curry a fucking awesome curry?

By: IronEdithKidd

IronEdithKidd — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 15:11:00 +0000

I’ve recently noticed on Canadian cooking shows they also call it corriander with no distinction between plant and seed.

By: The Life Of Bryan

The Life Of Bryan — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 15:09:00 +0000

Told ya it wasn’t exactly a polite comparison.

By: IronEdithKidd

IronEdithKidd — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 15:04:00 +0000

EEEEWWWWW!!!11!!!1

By: Robert Jonson

Robert Jonson — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 14:48:00 +0000

I’m entirely fine with Cilantro, but cucumbers have a similar effect.
Can smell ‘em from a mile away, and if they so much as touch other food it gets tainted by their horrible presence.

Seems to be only raw though, because I’m entirely fine with stuff like tzatziki.

By: John Aguirre

John Aguirre — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 13:44:00 +0000

I have this with Celery. If someone is eating it, I have to leave the room, because the smell of it is overpoweringly offensive to me. Even a hint of celery on food ruins the meal for me. It is simply abominable.

People tell me “but … it doesn’t taste like anything!”, but to me, it’s very very strong, even the smell of someone eating it from 10 feet away.

By: EH

EH — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 09:21:00 +0000

NUDGE NUDGE

By: Josh Eyre

Josh Eyre — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 07:30:00 +0000

First time I had Cilantro, which probably wasn’t until my early 20′s, I too thought it tasted like dish soap, but now I LOVE it.

By: arsphenamine

arsphenamine — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Sorry if you hate chemistry. Coriander leaf has C8, C10 aldehydes that bother 1/7th of the population. Stink bugs generate C10,C12 a,b-unsaturated aldehydes that bother all of us. The resemblance is unmistakable, even to folks who like cilantro.

Coriander also has linalool, a congener that overlaps with strawberries. Once you know that, minced cilantro and cut strawberries is a pleasing combination.

That, and I do not begrudge _anyone_ their sensitivity to cilantro. It’s an agreeable challenge to good cuisine.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 00:37:00 +0000

Fake cherry = cough medicine.
Fake lemon/lime = urinal cake.
Fake banana = nail polish remover.
Fake strawberry = shampoo.

Maybe we as a species should stop using food flavors for non-foods before we create repulsive associations for every fruit.

By: mcheshire

mcheshire — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 00:16:00 +0000

I love the smell of coffe. Although, these days, caffeine makes me sweat uncontrollably for about an hour, another case of aging making everything sucky.

By: dnebdal

dnebdal — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 23:49:00 +0000

The texture is definitely part of the experience, so yeah – sounds plausible.

I’m one of the oddballs that enjoy strong synthetic flavours – fake cherry is a favourite, but fake banana is also decent. The trick is to consider them as something entirely distinct, with the name being little more than an arbitrary identifier. (Home-made cherry juice is great; artificial cherry candy is great; there’s no relation beyond the name. )

By: dnebdal

dnebdal — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 23:49:00 +0000

Vanilla nuts?

By: dnebdal

dnebdal — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 23:43:00 +0000

Hell, I have that with raw cucumbers.

By: Marja Erwin

Marja Erwin — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 23:32:00 +0000

Oh no, nothing like that. I will just carry around an old flat inner tube in case I need to burn something to cover up the smell. I hope you don’t mind.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 23:08:00 +0000

To fight the cilantro, we must understand the cilantro. We can ill afford another Klendathu.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 22:47:00 +0000

I’m the same. It tastes like soap to me, but I’m quite open to very odd flavors. Have you ever had a shiso leaf, the real version of the plastic grass that comes with sushi?

By: dioptase

dioptase — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 22:47:00 +0000

Kosher or Halal?

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 22:46:00 +0000

Coffee smells like a pile of burning tires to me.

By: danimagoo

danimagoo — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 22:42:00 +0000

I love the taste and aroma of cilantro. Yankee Candle even has a cilantro candle out now. I love it. After reading the comments, though, I wonder if those will sell well … or if some of you will hunt the candles down in the store and smash them.

By: Peter Green

Peter Green — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 21:58:00 +0000

“…the smell doesn’t translate entirely into a taste.”

I read the explanation for that just a few days ago – apparently it matters which direction food aromas travel over the smell receptors (in through the nostrils vs. up the back of the throat from food in the mouth).

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/9528936/Why-does-coffee-never-taste-as-good-as-it-smells.html

By: Michael Levy

Michael Levy — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 21:54:00 +0000

New York Times covered this in 2010 -
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/dining/14curious.html?_r=1

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 21:18:00 +0000

picky eating

God forbid that people should have preferences that don’t agree with yours.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 21:15:00 +0000

I dislike pesto because it was so unavoidable in the 1980s. And you got a lecture on the history and ingredients with your dinner. Straight people discovered BDSM and jello salad people discovered pesto.

By: mcheshire

mcheshire — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 21:13:00 +0000

Yes, yes. It smells EXACTLY like stink bugs. I hate that these stupid stink bugs have affected my love of Cilantro.

By: mcheshire

mcheshire — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 21:03:00 +0000

I think it smells like stink bugs. In fact, it DOES smell like stink bugs. I love that shit though, could eat handfuls of it. I wouldn’t eat handfuls of stink bugs though.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 21:01:00 +0000

it utterly overpowers everything else in the dish.

The same is true for parsley and celery, those scourges of Anglo cooking. A tiny leaf and the whole thing tastes like something that you’d feed your goat to de-worm him.

By: Tavie

Tavie — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 20:28:00 +0000

My mother was passionately anti-cilantro. I carry on my disdain of the herb in her memory. To be honest, I have an almost non-existent sense of smell, to the point that people are afraid to leave me home alone in case of gas leaks and what-not. I wonder if my bad sense of smell is related to her hatred of cilantro.

By: snowmentality

snowmentality — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 20:26:00 +0000

Shouldn’t I either hate or like cilantro?

Nah. You should either taste it as soap or not. But your reaction to the soapy flavor doesn’t have to be hate. Maybe you just oddly enjoy soapy flavors.

Likewise, I’m sure there are people who don’t taste cilantro as soap, but happen to dislike its non-soap flavor.