Cilantro

[darkemeralds]

A Twitter conversation about cilantro yesterday between Jane Espenson and Drew Greenberg (Jane vows to try liking it, Drew feels betrayed in their united cilantro hatred) led me to some reading about this poor controversial little leaf, aka coriander and also aka Chinese parsley, which some people regard almost as a poison even as it makes up an important part of several great cuisines.

An NPR article cites some research into the divide. After ruling out taste factors in the leaf, the research found that there's a smell component that cilantro lovers can detect, but which cilantro haters can't. Without that component, the stuff smells like soap. Or bugs.

This interested me because I've been on both sides of the cilantro divide. For most of my life I hated the stuff. It ruined anything it was in, and removed vast swaths of Mexican and Indian cuisine from my enjoyment.

Then a few weeks ago, thanks to a cilantro-centric dish offered by kis when she was visiting, I discovered that I now like it. I suspect my gluten-freedom has something to do with it: a number of my tastes and cravings have undergone such remarkable changes in the last eight months that I hardly know myself. Sinus-clearing alone could account for the shift in olfactory perception.

So, a poll.

Poll #4677 Cilantro

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 20

View Respondents

You and cilantro:

View Answers

Hate
4 (20.0%)

Love
12 (60.0%)

Indifferent
2 (10.0%)

What's cilantro?
2 (10.0%)

Comments

[writerscramp]

Yes, although I like tea fine. But we're pretty sure that's why I react so negatively to the taste and smell of coffee and alcohol and several other flavors...certain cheeses, olives (except plain black), most bitter flavors, peppers (although my tolerance for peppers has increased over the years, thanks to being married to a pepper fanatic :). Spinach and other dark greens are often listed as problem foods for supertasters, but I don't have any trouble with them as long as they're not the only ingredient (with the exception of spinach, which I can eat without too much dressing up). They also say that supertasters tend to not like sweets or fats, and stay away from many green vegetables like brussel sprouts, and that's not true for me at all.

It's probably also why I tend to prefer saltiness more than most. Which seems counter intuitive, but from what I've read, supertasters tend to be drawn to salt flavors and saltiness because it helps block out bitterness. Bitter flavors are something supertasters "experience in Technicolor" and can make the difference between being able to enjoy a food or not.

There's a chemical taste test you can take to find out if you're a supertaster where they put a drop of some chemical on your tongue and if you're a supertaster, it'll be so bitter it'll make you want to gag (non-tasters can't taste anything and medium-tasters will taste a little bit of the bitterness). So I'm in no hurry to sign up for that. ;)

[darkemeralds]

Very interesting. The variety in human constitution never stops being interesting and amazing.