I love Mexican food. I love Thai food. Why do the chefs at these restaurants have to ruin their delicious cuisine with the Evil Weed (as my friend likes to call it)?
It’s a little request, really. Just put the little green sprigs in a bowl on the side so those who enjoy it can sprinkle it liberally to their delight.
Seriously, the stuff tastes exactly like Palmolive to me. I can’t stand the smell of it! I know I’m not alone in this. And it has been suggested to me that those of us who taste cilantro as soap are slightly (or not so slightly) allergic to it. I don’t know because I hate the stuff so much I don’t think I’ve ever ingested enough of it to find out what the reaction might be. I guess the reaction of “blech!” is enough of an allergy for me.
Really. I was shopping last night, and every brand of salsa in the grocery store included cilantro. I have to make my own (which I’m not opposed to, but who has the time?). And tonight I had a meeting after work, and I had to grab a burrito at the Mexican restaurant down the street from my church, and it was laden with cilantro! I couldn’t eat it. I wanted to cry!
I know, I’m a little melodramatic, but seriously, when I’m hungry, you don’t want to mess with me. I get really cranky!
So, this blog is my soapbox, I just told someone, and let me tell you, I don’t like eating soap, or anything that tastes like soap!
Thank God for Casa Vallarta. They make an AWESOME chile relleno burrito, and their guacamole has no cilantro. This place is mere paces from my apartment, and I eat there frequently. For those of you in the ‘hood, this restaurant has amazing Mexican home cookin’. Really, this is a very tidy little hole in the wall whose fajitas really shouldn’t be missed. They make their corn tortillas by hand every day. And they don’t cook with cilantro.
I am so totally going there tomorrow.
Paradoxologies 
My wife and I used to feel the same way for a long time. I think the trouble is that many people who like cilantro, put too much of it in and that turns a lot of people off.
How I learned to love cilantro was to start just eating just a little bit in my food and over time I started to love it.
Now I love the stuff and consider it essential in many meals.
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Bleeeeeech and AMEN is all I can say. I have lont suggested that cilantro detestation is genetic, I am certain it runs in my (our) family. But to me, it tastes like Dial soap, not Palmolive. Whatever.
I hae learned to be moderately pro-active when it comes to ordering food that might be tainted with ths stuff, but oftentimes I forget, too. Peter then happily will eat it for me. Ick.
Thanks for the OP/ED. Again i say: BLEEEEEECH.
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Count me, as you know, as one of those who interprets cilatro as tasting like Ivory liquid soap (and not in the good way).
We are not alone, you know:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=cilantro+taste+soap
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Pingback: I Really Do Hate Cilantro « Paradoxologies
My wife once put us on a meal plan from some cookbook that included many, many recipes that called for cilantro. My wife loves it. My two daughters and I, on the other hand, find it nauseating. We now insist that when she makes recipes that call for the evil weed that she put it in a seperate container and add it to her own plate.
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I did a google search for: cilantro + chemical + composition
and came across a list at
http://www.botanical-online.com/medicinalscoriandersativumangles.htm
Then did a google search for each acid and oil with + soap
Here are the results
———————
Components:
Acids:
– linoleic, – antiarthritic, hepatoprotective, anticancerigenous, hypocholesterolemic.
>>>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Limonene+%2B+soap
– oleic – anticancerigenous, hypocholesterolemic., antialopecic.
>>>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=oleic+%2B+soap
– palmitic – hypocholesterolemic, antioxidant, antialopecic
>>>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=palmitic+%2B+soap
– stearic – hypocholesterolemic (Fruits
)>>>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=stearic+%2B+soap
– petroselinic
>>>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=petroselinic+%2B+soap
– ascorbic – antibacterial, antiulceric, antiatherosclerotic, antihypertensive, antiinflammatory, antioxidant, antiscorbutic, hypocholesterolemic, anticold, antitumoral, vulnerary.( Leaves
)>>>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=ascorbic+%2B+soap
Essential oil, rich in:
– Cineole: antibacterial, anti- rheumatic, antiseptic, antiulceric, choleretic
>>>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Cineole+%2B+soap
– Borneol: antibacterial, antiinflammatory, antispasmodic, hepatoprotective.
>>>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Borneol+%2B+soap
– Camphene: antioxidant, expectorant
>>>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Camphene+%2B+soap
– Citronelol: antiseptic
>>>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Citronelol+%2B+soap
– Coriandrol: anticonvulsant
>>>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Coriandrol+%2B+soap
– Geraniol: anticancerigenous, expectorant, antiseptic, antimelanomic, antispasmodic..
>>>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Geraniol+%2B+soap&btnG=Search
– Limonene: antibacterial, anticancerigenous, antiespasmodic, expectorant.
>>>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Limonene+%2B+soap
– Linalool: anticancerigenous, antiespasmodic, antihistaminic, hypnotic.
>>>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Linalool+%2B+soap
– Alpha-pinene: antibacterial, antiinflammatory, expectorant, anticancerigenous.
>>>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Alpha-pinene+%2B+soap
– Beta-pinene: antiinflammatory, antispasmodic
>>>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Beta-pinene+%2B+soap
– Beta-phelandrene: fungicide
>>>http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&am…
—-
EVERYTHING in Cilantro is used to make soap!
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Not news to you, but =Coriander= is cilantro!
Ugh! I’ve ruined food by putting letting people put coriander in it.
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