Last week when the NY Times published a piece on why cilantro is feverishly despised by a huge population, I got excited.
I used to be a picky eater when I was a kid: I liked my steak well done so I don’t see blood, no seafood please it’s squidgy, and I don’t even want to attempt raw sea-critters aka sushi. Took time but I grew out of most of these things: today, I like my steak medium-rare, I love seafood (with the exception of oysters and clams which I am allergic to), and sushi has become my version of comfort food. Today, I’ll eat octopus like it’s my job and sweetbreads like it’s my middle name. I’ve tried alligator, snails, frogs, sea urchin, chicken cartilage, mirugai, boudin noir, foie (of goose, duck, and monkfish), and many more delectables that would have made the nine year-old me shudder.
But the one thing I still hate is cilantro.
My first cilantro-tasting memory is also the first time I had pho. I wasn’t a fan of the smell, and didn’t want to have to eat those slimy noodles with thinly sliced, boiled chicken. Come to think of it, I have never learned to enjoy pho, either.
The article touches on how our taste perceptions are tied to memories. Associating cilantro with an unpleasant experience will forever make cilantro unpleasant to me. This also explains why pho is forever tainted in my memory – even when I eat it without cilantro. Apparently, the makeup of the smell of cilantro is similar to the smell of soaps and bedbugs. If your brain has already put a big nix on cilantro, one whiff of the stuff will just register as “nasty soapy bedbugs” instead of “beloved herb”. And for me, one whiff of pho, regardless of how cilantro-less it is, causes me to think cilantro! and stop!
Cilantro lovers around the world have not taken lightly to this acknowledged cilantro-hate writing going on. A “FUCK YEA CILANTRO” tumblr group can attest to that.
Sorry guys, but cilantro-hate cannot be helped.
Discussing Food and Face 