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Sun 25 Nov, 2012 11:03 pm
The other day someone said to me the no one is undecided about liking cilantro, that it is either loved or hated. Does anyone dispute this?
for the record I am on the love side.
gee, hawk, finally something we can agree about (and something that doesn't break down along political lines).
@MontereyJack,
so are you saying that folks either love it or hate it...that there is no middle ground?
From what I can tell, a lot of people really hate the taste, most seem to say that to them it tastes like soap. There's some informed opinion that there's a genetic link to that--doesn't seem to break down along "racial" lines, though, I have a friend who's from New Zealand, straight English ancestry, and that's his take on the taste. Maybe something like lactose intolerance, which is what the large majority of the human population displays. I'm sure there are people who can take it or leave it, but if it tastes like soap to you, I'm pretty sure you're going to be in the confirmed "hate it" camp.
I imagine there are some people in the take it or leave it camp. But the first time I went to Mexico, I kept tasting this fantastic thing in a lot of the food, and was at a loss as to what it was. It was a revelation, the essense of greenness, totally awesome. Took me weeks to find out it was cilantro, which is also the same plant that coriander is from, but I still think coriander is pretty much Meh, but the leaves, ah, the leaves!!!!
@MontereyJack,
Quote:There's some informed opinion that there's a genetic link to that
yes, i have heard that somewhere before....interesting stuff.
Thanks for playing.
@hawkeye10,
I'm a hater. To me it has a very metallic taste that totally overpowers any other flavor in the food.
@JPB,
us too.
it goes into salad, guac, and jespah's amazing kiwi salsa...
@Region Philbis,
steak with chimichurri sauce is delicious.
1 cup (packed) fresh Italian parsley
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup (packed) fresh cilantro
2 garlic cloves, peeled
3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
preparation
Puree all ingredients in processor. Transfer to bowl. (Can be made 2 hours ahead. Cover and let stand at room temperature.)
Read More
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chimichurri-Sauce-107159#ixzz2DL92JrOM
@hawkeye10,
I'm meh-to-love. It grew on me though, maybe that's part of the "genetic" part? You have to try it many-many times before you start to like it, or something about when you first try it?
I didn't like it when I met E.G., he loved it, he used it often, and now I like it too. It took years though.
@hawkeye10,
Christmas-time cakes and cookies wouldn't taste ... like Christmas-time cookies and cakes if baked without cilantro. And curry powder without cilantro?
@hawkeye10,
Quote: The other day someone said to me the no one is undecided about liking cilantro, that it is either loved or hated. Does anyone dispute this?
If it's included in the cooking and/or presentation process I have no objection to it however I don't go looking for it and never have had a desire to buy it at the market.
@Sturgis,
I posted:
I think it can wake things up. A certain brightening effect, especially when fresh.
Then I had a sudden worry that I was talking about coriander, not cilantro, then looked it up and they're the same thing. Whew.
I don't hate it, and i certainly don't love it--i'm just tired of it. Back in the 90s, it seems that every chef i knew just went apeshit about cilantro, and put it in everything. Pretty soon, because they were dumping handfuls of it into their dishes, everything tasted the same. If i never tasted cilantro again, it would be no skin off my nose.
@sozobe,
coriander is the seed of the cilantro plant> Coriander has a "orangey" taste while cilantro is indeed, soapy.
In a burrito nothing but cilantro pops up the taste of the frjoles and whatever mets in there.
Theres a coupla others like a salsa, but Im not sure Id go chasing after it in the ethnic markets. Anyway its a damn weed in the garden. I planted dill and cilantro a coupla years ago and they keep multiplying
@farmerman,
Wikipedia sez the whole thing is coriander:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriander
Quote:Coriander (Coriandrum sativum), also known as cilantro, Chinese parsley or dhania,[1] is an annual herb in the family Apiaceae.
[...]
Cilantro is the Spanish word for coriander, also deriving from coriandrum. It is the common term in North America, due to its extensive use in Mexican cuisine.
I'd love to plant some. Dill too, yummmm.
@sozobe,
Scary moment there. I was replying to you and kept getting 'topic not found' as a message. Guess you were editing.
Anywho, cilantro might wake things up for some, I personally haven't discovered it to have that much lift in it. Then again, I eat onions raw and most people think I'm heavy handed with garlic so maybe I've demolished the cilantro taste receptors.
Interestingly, it appears the now exceedingly dead Julia Child didn't care for it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/dining/14curious.html
Quote:Culinary sophistication is no guarantee of immunity from cilantrophobia. In a television interview in 2002, Larry King asked Julia Child which foods she hated. She responded: “Cilantro and arugula I don’t like at all. They’re both green herbs, they have kind of a dead taste to me.”
“So you would never order it?” Mr. King asked.
“Never,” she responded. “I would pick it out if I saw it and throw it on the floor.”
Ms. Child had plenty of company for her feelings about cilantro (arugula seems to be less offensive). The authoritative Oxford Companion to Food notes that the word “coriander” is said to derive from the Greek word for bedbug, that cilantro aroma “has been compared with the smell of bug-infested bedclothes” and that “Europeans often have difficulty in overcoming their initial aversion to this smell.” There’s an “I Hate Cilantro” Facebook page with hundreds of fans and an I Hate Cilantro blog.
Unlike her, I have never found myself picking it out of the food or tossing it to the floor.
@sozobe,
well, if you go and buysome coriander, the bottles will ony have in them these little orangey seeds.
Like nutmeg and mace come from the same tree, just that one is the husk and the other is the seed.
Make a good topic, what plants deliver two different type products that go under different culinary names.
AND I DONT MEAN tomato and spaghetti sauce
@farmerman,
I think that
coriander (coriandrum sativum) is sometimes confused with
culantro/Mexican coriander/long coriander (eryngium foetidum) .... The latter is called here cilantro - but I meant coriander in my above post
@hawkeye10,
I like it, friends hate it. I think it is some taste bud thing, where most of those who hate it think it tastes soapy. Similar to, or one more aspect of, people having different taste buds re anything bitter, a gene thing, but I've no idea if it's the same gene affecting both. The people I know who hate cilantro also often have been known to hate lots of veggie greens, one even swiss chard.
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