Cilantro

[dianyla]

For trolleypup , and anyone else who needs to read this.

Article about why people either love or hate cilantro

Comments

[canyonwren]

Even though I cook with it every now and then, I'm stumped for a description. I think I grab it because it adds a green *zing* to thing, rather like cumin does. I love all the disparate descriptions in the article, though, both positive and negative. Some are amazing. It tastes like a migraine? Like being hit? I'm glad I either lack or own the gene that protects me from that, providing the gene theory is correct.

[corivax]

I'm a cilantro-hater, and I parsed the guy who described it as being hit and the migraine guy as referring to how completely overpowering it is. You can't taste ANY other flavor if there's cilantro in the dish. Even if there was cilantro and I remove it before eating my food, the whole universe is full of soapy flavor. It's a lot like the way migraines sometimes block other sights, at least in my experience. Just tastes like soap, though, exactly like the times my mom used to put soap in my mouth for saying the word "sucks".

[dianyla]

Hey, did you ever try tasting cilantro after eating the miracle fruit stuff?

[corivax]

Oh lord no I am not that stupid. I don't think miraculin affects anything other than sour or bitter, and cilantro isn't either, so I don't think that would change it.

Also, I sometimes suspect that it's partially or entirely in my head. It's so strong, even after I fish out individual leaves, that I am not sure it's really a sensation that originates in my tastebuds. In which case, miraculin would not help.

[siliconshaman]

If my memory serves me correctly, it's one of these things there's a big genetic component to. Whether or not it tastes soapy depends on a particular mutation of a single gene [not that I recall which one]...and if you don't have it, then it's fairly ok.

[trolleypup]

It wouldn't be so bad if it just tasted soapy...it is the spoiling meat flavor that gets to me.

[unaspenser]

Is it strange that before now I never knew anybody could hate cilantro that strongly, let alone such a large number of people? Wow. I grew up eating it and I love it.

[alba_ny]

I didn't grow up eating it. Since I was little I would always try different things, and eventually had dishes containing cilantro. It never bothered me

[dianyla]

Remind me to tell you about the benefits of dill sometime! *waggles brows*