Visitors contribute their cilantro stories...

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 "I was doing some gardening for my mum once. Whilst clearing out her vegetable patch (adjacent to her herb area) I started to yak as I came across a pungent smell. I nearly fainted - perplexed I looked closer to the ground, thinking I had dug up a dead animal or something. I then realised I had cut part of the evil coriander/cilantro plant off - to make things worse it was in seed.... I live to tell the tale though."




 "I found this website after spending a good amount of time with very good ingredients (garden grown tomats, zuccini, cream cheese, pre-prepared beef/chicken broth)...making a soup. It was smelling so good (i forgot to mention red-wine vinigar)...mmmmm...the tomatos...the zuccini...so i took a scoop of soup...as i savored the taste...the dreaded taste came...i was so upset and disapointed! Furthermore, i lost my apetite. I didnt know what it was...so i searched about "soapy soup" and this site came up. I realized what it must have been...the question is how did it get there? The only seasoning i used was basil, which was kept in a plastic baggy safe from the coriander (why did i even buy that in the first place?)...i dont know how it got there...but just to see, i tasted the corriander, and it tasted very much like that awful taste in my soup. Sigh...it was awful...and now i have to go dump my soup down the sink..."




 "It was the summer of 1998. My friend, Clark, was working at a Lebanese restaurant and wanted me to come in and try the food. Always open to try new things, I decided to give it a go. Upon his recommendation, I ordered the Dijaj Mishwi. The dinner came with a salad, which I was very excited for since I was very hungry. AND I love salad. Well, until that day I did. Anywhoo, my salad FINALLY came, and I dove right in, taking a huge bite. Much to my dismay, this horrible, horrible taste filled my mouth and I wanted to cry. My tongue instantly rejected the foul minty-metally-soapy-poison flavor, and the salad just kind of fell out of my mouth. It was seriously the nastiest thing I had ever encountered. As soon as I regained my composure, I asked my waiter for a new salad, this time without whatever that yucky stuff was. That was the day I met my nemesis - cilantro! Ever since then, I can smell it a mile away (unfortunately). When my roomates are using it to make some homemade salsa, I am immediately nauseated and need to vacate the house. I love Mexican food, but if I go to Taco Del Mar, I have to take an hour lunch just so I can pick every last little nasty flake out of my otherwise delicious burrito. I do love guacamole, but that is something else I cannot have at the above-mentioned establishment. They actually puree the leafy devil into the mixture, so there is no avoiding it. Get with the program, Taco Del Mar!! You could have so much more business if you did not taint everything!!! This is another reason why I cannot really eat Thai or Indian food. It is tasty otherwise. But man, when I get that icky icky crap in my mouth, it's just the worst. I agree with the guy who said we need to ship the rest of the Earth's supply to Venus. However, people who are aware of my aversion to cilantro are also very aware of my unnatural hatred for cucumbers. This is yet another thing that baffles me - how many damn people actually like cucumbers. Even more than cilantro!! AM I ALONE IN THIS HATRED?? Is there www.ihatecucumbers.com? If not, there should be. My stomach turns at the very stench. People have asked me if I had to eat a cup of cilantro or a cup of cucumbers, which would I choose? In all honesty, I think I would have to go with the cilantro. But that is the only case I can think of where I would force it down my throat. In all other instances, cilantro can kiss my ass!"





 "I lived all my life in Argentina until 4 years ago. Argentina is a beautiful place where almost no one knows what cilantro is. Everybody kows, though, what a "chinche" is: it is a little green bug that smells horribly when you touch or kill it. I think that it is called "green stick bug" in the States. Anyway, I was with my husband in Chile before moving to the States, having dinner with some people, and I helped myself with some potato salad, that had some chopped herbs that I thought it was parsley. When I first put that thing in my mouth, I looked at my husband, totally terrified, and I told him: "I think I just ate a chinche." He hugged me, he laughed, and he told me "It's about time someone on this earth understands me! You have no idea how much I love you"
Happens that he also believes that cilantro tastes like a bug, and happens that while he was living in different countries throughout Latin America nobody would believe him. People around there love cilantro, I don't know why. It tastes like "chinche", and my husband knew he had really found his soul mate when I experienced cilantro for the first time. (oh by the way, he was not my husband at the time, and he often says that he decided to spend the rest of his life with me when he realized that I shared his worldview -a view of a world where herbs that taste like bugs should be forbidden."




 "I hate Cilantro and I am allergic to it. It makes my throat close up and I am unable to breath!!! I can't stand the look of it, the sight of it or the spelling of it!!! Whenever I go out to eat, I ALWAYS have to ask "Does this have Cilantro in it?" and I make the waiter ask the cook and make sure before I even order food. I have to tell the waiter that they do not want an ambulance showing up... (I sometimes have to ask my friends at dinner parties if their dishes have Cilantro). This herb is really a drag for me because I could die from it!!!! I'm SOOOO glad there are other Cilantro haters in the world! Yee Haw!!!!!"





 "I think I'm going to barf! OK so I have a rabbit, and it needed some greens. I heard cilantro was good for them so I grabbed a pack at the store. I came home and as soon as I tore the pack open I was overwhelmed by the horrible smell. I preparred it anyway for my beloved rabbit, gagging all the way. My stomache hurts so bad from breathing it in, and the smell wont go away. It's on my hands and my towel, and now it's going to stink up my poor rabbit. She seems to like it though... nutty thing."




 "At my most beloved TexMex restaurant, I joined friends after work. I ordered the tortilla soup like I always did. I scooped as much as I could and stuck it in my mouth. But this time it tasted like rotten metallic weeds. Then I realized I had green spinach looking garbage hanging out of my mouth. I couldn't swallow and I must not spit! Foul nasty slimey yuk. I swallowed it. GAG! The waitress beamed at me and said something about the NEW and IMPROVED tortilla soup. I asked her is they had cleaned out the drain trap and used that in the soup. Made her take it away AND remove the charge. They were offended! I never went back! "




 "When I was younger, my mom created her fantastic salsa recipe, which included a ton of cilantro. She would have me help her, and my job was to always pluck the little leaves off the cilantro stems. I hated the smell, it stayed on my fingers, I hated the taste, I hated it altogether.
I hate cilantro so much, sometimes I'll feel like spitting out part of my Grilled Stuft burrito at Taco Bell when I taste a hint of cilantro. I try to pick the leaves out when I see them. I really wish that I could ask for a "cilantro-free" burrito, but that nasty leaf is in EVERYTHING there.
I am part Mexican, and when people hear that I don't like cilantro, they are stunned for some reason. "Aren't you part Mexican?? How is that possible?? How can you not love cilantro?!?" It makes me gag, it's the most disgusting thing I have ever tasted.
My husband told me about this website tonight, and now that I know you are here, I will spread the word!!"




 "CILANTRO is the sickest substance I have ever tasted. I grew up hating green things and Mexican food, so I never knew what CILANTRO was. THEN one day I decided to try a taco and WHOA I just about started to cry. I thought I hated tacos but it was the CILANTRO that I hated. I have not had time to read everyone's stories, but I am sure some of you feel the same way I do about CILANTRO. IT TASTES LIKE A CLEANING CHEMICAL. I can tast it in anything and everything. I can taste one little piece. Therefore both salsa and guacomole are hard to eat because 95% of them contain CILANTRO. I ask every waitor/watress if the item I am ordering contains CILANTRO, even if I know it does not. I tell them I am allergic and that makes them be extremely careful with my order. A Few things to be careful of other than Mexican food: BBQ chicken salads...love them but always ask if it contains CILANTRO Thai food...also love it but a lot of it contains CILANTO. If I think of more, I will add to the list. Thank you to all you CILANTRO haters for joining this site... I HATE CILANTRO FOREVER
"




 "The first time I had cilantro was in a homemade salsa. I'm always a little leary of 'homemade canned goods', so I tasted in with a little trepidation. First tortilla scoop, ok- tasted untainted. With the second scoop I gagged! It was like chewing aluminum foil!! I found a napkin and ejected the mouthful into it. Ever since then, I keenly look for those little green leaves that seem to be in everything."





 "Cilantro is the most vile substance in the universe. It tastes like electrified Vicks Vaporub. It has turned up in my food, hidden in burritos, soup, sauces, and in other places. A mouthful engenders an eruptive response, coupled with epithets and condemnation of the culinary staff. I am proud to be a member of this organization. I hope we can eventually have the earth sifted for every last seed of cilantro, then load them on the space shuttle for the moons of Neptune. Gary K. Maluf Ph. D."




 "I discovered something new about myself this past weekend: I hate cilantro. That it not an exaggeration. I loath that horrible excuse for an herb.

My boyfriend and I decided to try a Mexican restaurant we had never been to before, and when the cashier asked if we wanted cilantro on our chicken tacos, we said "Sure, why not?" Little did I know. . . I tried to take off all of the stuff from my tacos, but it's so damn pervasive and the scent/taste was infused into the entire thing. I felt really bad wasting otherwise good tacos, but I honestly could not force myself to eat them. Earlier in the week I brought in a microwaveable, organic Mexican Tamale Pie for lunch at work. It looked good judging from the picture and the ingredients. Corn, crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce, beans, zucchini - where could it go wrong? I'm not a big fan of zucchini, but it's not like it has a strong, overpowering flavor so I was okay with eating something that contained it. However, once I took it out of the microwave it smelled really unpleasant. I thought perhaps the heat had melted some of the plastic container. I tried it anyway, and it was so nasty I could only tolerate a few bites. At the time I didn't know why it was so damned horrible, but after visiting that Mexican restaurant it dawned on me: it must have contained cilantro.

According to a Wikipedia article, my distaste (that word is definitely an understatement) may actually be in my blood, so to speak: "The leaves have a very different taste from the seeds, similar to parsley but 'juicier' and with citrus-like overtones. Some people instead perceive an unpleasant 'soapy' taste and/or a rank smell. This taste is believed to be a genetic trait, but has yet to be fully researched."

Honestly, I would rather chug down cough syrup and munch on non-chewable Tylenol than ever eat cilantro again.
"




 "I used to love going to Chipotle (pronounced Cha-pot-el) and getting their delicious (and gynormous) burritos, but then they started puting cilantro in their rice and they were forever ruined for me.

Someday I will build a laser to will destroy all the cilantro of the world, and there will be much celebration."




 "Me and my daughter were on a train, traveling to visit my sister in hospital, my daughter was hungry so we got sandwiches at the station,she had chicken and mayonnaise her favorite, we sat looking out of the window of the train when we decided to have our sandwiches, one bite and my daughters face screwed up and she spat the food into a tissue i asked what was rong and she said the sandwich tasted off, i took a bite and had the same reaction it was disgusting, i read the ingrediants and there was the dreaded cilantro (corriander) the writing was so tiny i could only just see it, surely the writing on food packages should be large there is so many food allergies that people could die from not being informed properly.
Well thats my story and now i am so careful when shopping i never allow anything with cilantro in it in my house"




 "The stuff tastes like washing-up liquid. Until i heard about this site i thought i must be one of a minority in hating the stuff!!! I adore cooking and enjoy probably all other herbs and spices... i always thought there must be something wrong with me because i hated coriander (as known to us English)- it has to be without a doubt one of the most disgusting things anyone could eat, why on earth would you actually want to add it to food!"




 "Finally, people who understand. It has been rough trying to explain to my friends how evil the weed is. They just don't get it.

The first time I remember connecting the foul soapy taste with the evil weed was when my sister's boyfriend made fresh salsa for us with his new mini food processor. Everyone raved about how wonderful and fresh it was. I actually choked on the first bite. I didn't want to hurt his feelings, so I pretended that the salsa was good. I didn't understand at the time why everyone else seemed to genuinely enjoy it. He went on and on about the cilantro, so I figured that was what tasted so wrong.

Sometime later at an upscale restaurant, I had a grilled sandwich that had tons of cilantro on it. I almost threw up at the first bite. Of course, my misunderstanding friends laughed as I picked every tiny fragment of the evil weed off my sandwich. Even then the foul taste had infected the rest of the sandwich!!! I choked it down and chalked it up to experience.

Now, I am ever-vigilant. It breaks my heart (and turns my stomach) to see the evil weed creeping into everything. I thankfully have one brand of salsa left at the local market. Once it caves to pro-cilantro fascist pressure, I will have to try to find some online.

God bless you all and may he wipe the evil weed form the face of the earth!

"




 "Once I ordered some won-ton soup at Pei Wei. When I received the soup and took a spoonful I was shocked that my mouth was overwhelmed with the taste of cilantro.

I was previously unaware that cilantro was even a potential ingredient in won-ton soup. Are other people aware of this? That cilantro has infiltrated previously cilantro-safe americanized chinese food?

When I told the waiter, "Dude, this sipping this soup is like eating cilantro," he went back into the kitchen to talk to the cook. The cook apparently had mistaken the teaspoon symbol for a tablespoon, thereby increasing the amount of cilantro in my 8 oz soup THREEFOLD. The manager then came by and told me they would get me fresh soup with the correct amount of cilantro. "No please," I said, "I would prefer no cilantro at all."

Many others would have lost all appetite, but I was born in the United States after all, and the cilantro-less soup was tasty. To me this indicates that the herb was unnessecary anyway. "




 "As a 17 year old in receipt of my first pay packet I decided to treat my family to an Indian takeaway. Flush, I extravagantly ordered to my heart's content a variety of meals. At home, I proudly dished up the meal and sat down, salivating in anticipation. The first mouth full was all it took to turn my smile upside down. Not wanting to spoil the mood, I persevered but it didn’t get better, everything had a pungent taste that I couldn’t describe. The rest of my family ate heartedly whilst I was very much disgusted and disappointed. I hated the taste and left the food to waste.

I couldn’t work out what the problem was because every dish had the same underlying taste, therefore it meant that I couldn’t just say I won’t eat the chicken or the beef so I gave up on eating Indian from that day on and became somewhat of a food leper.

It would cause problems because when my work colleagues were arranging outings for lunch, Christmas or leaving dos, when someone suggested we should ‘go for an Indian’ I would always be the one to reject the idea so the whole group would be forced to try something else or I would not go.

Fifteen years on, a new job and work colleagues and more mature, I decided to give our local Indian restaurant that offered wonderful lunch time buffet deals a go. I had rice and chicken dish which was divine and thanked my lucky stars that “that taste” that I hate so much all those years ago was not there. Returning to the same restaurant a week later I carefully selected the same meal that I had enjoyed before and to my horror, you guessed it, the pungent taste had returned. I scraped the sauce that I had so generously placed on and over the rice to one side and picked at the uncontaminated bits of rice. That was it for me and I still hadn’t worked out what it was that I didn’t like.

This year, my work restaurant serve a selection of freshly made speciality soups on the menu every day and that became my food of choice for lunch. One day on the menu was Carrot and Coriander soup which I picked without thought. One spoon full however was enough for me to finally,17 years later, put a name to the most awful, offensive and thoroughly undesirable tasting herb. I was relieved when I realised what it was because it now means that I can avoid it like the plague or whilst dining out make a request for my meal to exclude it.

My partner, who is a chef, doesn’t understand my aversion and thought perhaps that I was joking and/or underestimating my dislike of this herb. So one day he added it to a meal without my knowledge. As usual the food looked appetising but I took one bite of a the dish that he prepared and told him, I cant eat it and that I knew that it had coriander in it, he was surprised but at least he now knows that I’m not joking, I really don’t like it.



"




 "I decided to eat at a new restaurant that had just opened where I lived. There was a varied menu so I went for some fried catfish with black beans and rice. I took one bite of the black beans, started chewing, and immediately hurled all over my plate. The beans and rice were full of cilantro, a spice I had never either had or noticed before. Just a tiny speck in something makes me instantly violently ill. There IS something worse than death..."




 "Oh wowwwww - i really thought i was the only person in the world who HATES corriander (i know hate is a strong word but i really do dislike the stuff)! I have just read an article in a free London newspaper and was overjoyed to see that there was a website dedicated to hating the stuff - love it! OK i have a million corriander stories but my favourite has to be when we ordered an indian takeaway with a few other friends and i made sure the guy on the other end of the phone knew that none of the dishes should contain corriander. I told him 5 times! When we recieved the order, every single dish had corriander in it and i coulnd't eat any of it. I called to complain and he gave me a free order for next time. However, next time, the same thing happened again!!!!!!
Why oh why do they put herbs in a dish that totally takes away all the other lovely flavours?! It's now moving into my lunchtime snacks. I love prawns and fish but forget about me being able to have a prawn salad or a salmon salad from the supermarket - they all have corriander in them. And any oriental ready meal - the same thing goes!
Pleeeeeease. Just like we now have a rule in the UK where salt content has to be reduced in food - REDUCE THE CORRIANDER!!!"





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Please contribute YOUR cilantro story.