I Hate Cilantro
When my family lived in Mountain Green there was a kid who used to raise money for Scout Camp or whatever by selling salsa. My family always bought a jar or two when he came by and it was very good…at first. After the first couple of batches I started to notice that some bites of the salsa tasted bad…like soap or something. I had no idea for years and years what that taste was even though I found it in several other (mostly mexican) meals. I found out when I moved out to Virginia and had a roommate who grew his own herbs that the devil weed responsible for that foul taste was called Cilantro.
I told my herb growing roomate about what I thought cilantro tasted like and he thought I was crazy. I’ve since learned that Julia Child hated the stuff too and don’t feel so weird. It is said that the aversion to cilantro is genetic and it doesn’t have negative effects on most people. Now that I’ve found this site though…I know that I’m really not alone…and I’ve joined in the fight against the evil stank that is Cilantro.
Hat-tip: Virginia Postrel
3 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
In science class in high school, Mr. Nethercott gave us each a strip with a chemical substance that about 10-20% of the population can taste, and others cannot. I think that cilantro falls across these same lines. My wife loves it, puts it in all her salads, buys it bulk, and I can’t stand it! To a ‘taster’, it does taste like soap….
…which reminds me of a song by They Might Be Giants on a kids album they put out called ‘Supertaster’. About a man with superhero tasting powers… I guess you’re a ‘Supertaster’ too Jerm…
Comment by Cody — April 26, 2006 @ 9:44 am
Hey Cody,
I have that TMBG Cd too! It is excellent…’Supertaster’ is one of the weaker songs on that release.
I remember that Nethercott class. We had some pretty good science teachers at Morgan.
Comment by Jeremy Manning — April 26, 2006 @ 12:07 pm
That is weird that you joined the site.
Comment by Michael — April 27, 2006 @ 12:57 pm