I love cilantro.

So, I can't understand the hate pouring forth from this amusing web site.

Someone please help me understand.

I can't stand cilantro! To me, it takes like soap. I can detect even the slightest addition of it in any dish.

I can't stand cilantro! To me, it takes like soap. I can detect even the slightest addition of it in any dish.

Read some of the stories at the link. You are not alone.

Here is a sample:

Opened the quesadilla to find a cilantro-filled pico nightmare that is still haunting me this morning. I felt betrayed; they'd never used pico in their quesadillas before! Damn you, Muchas...damn you and your pico. "

I recall an article in the NYT a few years ago - apparently some people get the soap or dirty laundry taste and some don't. I am fortunate to love cilantro.

Back in the 60s when my wife and I were in the Peace Corps in India, our cook (yes, we were in the PC and had a cook. There was no way a volunteer could survive without one. We paid him $13 a month and he slept on the verandah with us. He was a great friend)...Anyway, Gaje brought us our first meal and it was covered in cilantro. We were disgusted. What was that stuff? We told him never to serve it again, but it was hard to avoid when we left home.

We took a month getting back from India, and one of our stays was Thailand. We had some of the best, hottest food we have ever had in our lives. Oddly, I don't remember cilantro.

We always hoped (this was the early 70s) Thai food would show up someday in the US. Of course, it did. When we saw the first Thai restaurant in Rochester open, we rushed to it. And there it was: cilantro. But something magical had happened to our tastebuds. We loved it. Now I can't imagine having Thai or Mexican or Indian, or stir-fry without it. I have no idea what happened.

So I totally understand people who hate cilantro. I'm just no longer one of them.

I recall an article in the NYT a few years ago - apparently some people get the soap or dirty laundry taste and some don't. I am fortunate to love cilantro.

Good article. I posted it awhile back when the La Rosita thread evolved into a cilantro discussion:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/dining/14curious.html

That was the thread I was thinking of! I remember the conversation, but forgot about it being related to La Rosita.

Here's the article that got me thinking about it again. Yes, the picture is parsley, not cilantro.

i love..... love... love... love... love cilantro. i would say i was born with a piece of cilantro in my teeth.... but then i remembered i didnt have any teeth... plus.... it just sounds yucky.... anywhoo

i understand some people not liking cilantro.... and the article is interesting, i had read it before. what i find interesting is this. one day i picked up some cilantro at the store. i guess the bunch had become undone and it was retied with other stuff that was undone. I believe it was parsley...... my daughters and i tasted it and whoa! it was disgusting!!!!! it tasted very odd and soapy to me...... but i can eat cilantro sprigs straight... the whole thing down to the stem.

Love me some cilantro!!!! I could eat pico with a spoon all by itself

Love me some cilantro!!!! I could eat pico with a spoon all by itself

welcome to my world! when i first met my husband ten years ago.... his mom invited us to dinner. i decided to bring along a HUGE bowl of pico de gallo with chips..... she had never had it... didnt like it... and didnt know how to eat it... major, major, major FAIL lol

You can have it! I'm with Sara, I hate the stuff!

I could eat cilantro on most any thing and love it...and I have eaten pico with a spoon...I love it that much.

[Robin Garr]

For the record, when cilantro first started showing up at local eateries and groceries, I wasn't crazy about it at all, but I realized it was a key flavor in Thai and Vietnamese, which I love, so I made myself eat it and pretty soon realized that I had started liking it. So the aversion may be genetic, but it can be overcome.

I never thought it smelled like soap, though. To me its aroma is a dead ringer for Crayolas.

I was hoping for more good hater stories.

I mentioned this thread to my sister who also has made her share of pico ...she says cilantro will taste soapy if not chopped/crushed properly. Maybe there are other chefs out there that could confirm or refute this as I have never had the problem. Thanks