Is this sort of hate as popular in places where cilantro is a much more basic herb, like, say, in Mexico or Vietnam or India, etc? I wonder how much of it has to do with tolerance and exposure to the herb. While I have no doubt some people simply will never enjoy cilantro, I had many of the same initial complaints the first dozen or so times I had the herb.
Is this sorta like the asparagus thing? A. You have to have the enzyme or what ever to alter the smell of the asparagus in your urine, and B. you have to have ability to detect the altered smell?
Or is this simply a preference thing? I love cilantro, fresh or cooked. I put it in my jambalaya, it wilts and I believe, enhances the flavor of the dish. Recipe called for parsley, but the cilantro makes it smell so much more delicious.
It’s obviously more than that, the way folks describe it. I love the stuff, too.
That’s a fair point. Although, the people I refer to are friends and workmates, so while the person serving in the shop might never know, I’d have thought that during the ensuing conversation over lunch that somebody over the years might have mentioned something about cilantro=soap, but there’s been nothing.
pulykamell asks an interesting question too, regarding the existence or otherwise of intense dislike of the stuff in countries where it’s a major ingredient in the national cuisine. I have a whole bunch of Vietnamese friends, so I’ll try and find out.
It’s also interesting to see people posting that they have gotten used to the soapy taste and now like cilantro. I have never been able to detect the faintest hint of soapiness in the stuff. On the other hand, if I ever did find a foodstuff soapy, I couldn’t imagine anything worse, and it would seem inconceivable that I’d ever get used to it.
Really? To me, it tastes like soap.
Oh, I taste the so-called soapieness, I know whatcha mean. It’s akin in flavor profile and has that alkaline flavoid. It tastes good to me, I like it’s freshness, and I don’t think there is a better foil to fish sauce.
I like the taste that it brings. I think The Cilantro Haters are probably also in favor of building a wall along the US Mex border. They are a Right Wing Hate Group.
I don’t know. I don’t even remember tasting it when I was young. Maybe I couldn’t taste it. I first started noticing something unique, especially in salsas when I was in my early twenties. I didn’t like it or dislike it at first, I just noticed it. But by the time I finally identified it, I was craving it.
I hate cilantro. Once my husband wanted to surprise me by adding a few new herbs in my herb garden. It was horrible. I got him to pull it out and double-bag it before putting it in the outside garbage bin. Like some people here, even if I pick it out of some food in a restaurant, the smell and taste linger.
Many smells will make me gag, but I don’t eat rotting whale, for instance, or the end result of projectile vomiting. I’m not sure the last is worse than cilantro, though. I prefer the smell of skunk spray to the stench of cilantro. People have been trying for years to get me to eat “just a little”. It also explains why I hate salsa, unless it’s a homemade variation without the crap in it.
I’m not a fussy eater except in this regard.
That’s just so wrong. Where do you live?
I think that it’s important to reiterate that to Cilantro Haters (like myself) it makes any dish taste exactly like a cup of liquid dish soap was added at some point. It’s not a faint hint of soapiness, not a twinge of bitterness, it’s absolutely overpowering in anything that contains it.
The fact that Mexican and Thai places use cilantro liberally makes me sad, and ordering the dish sans cilantro always elicits the strangest looks from the waitstaff. Everyone thinks that you’re nuts.
We are an oppressed people, but are very vocal 
Yeah, soap seems to be the general concensus, so I must be odd. Definitely a spoiled meat undertaste. It’s a very unhealthy taste.
I heard once that Agent Orange was actually developed by someone working on a cure for cilantro.
Ok. That’s a lie. But I’d heartily support any effort to defoliate and then salt any field found to be growing that vile, burnt-chemical-soapy tasting shit.
I feel similarly about lavender. I want to like the smell of lavender - it sounds so pleasant and calming and purple - but its instant migraine and smells like mold to me - I don’t understand why anyone would find the smell pleasant, comforting and calming at all - so obviously - I must smell something different.
That doesn’t mean I hate lavender or think the people who do like it are nuts - it does mean I need to be extra careful with “calming aromatherapy” - cause someone is going to stick lavender oil under my nose, give me a vomit inducing headache and I’ll be anything but calm.