# Do any other foods have the "cilantro" effect? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 6, 2016, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635 "2016-06-06T02:47:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2016, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/82 "2016-06-15T16:27:01Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Do cilantrophobes go into Indian restaurants and demand they leave out the curry? Curry is a big problem for me. It might be okay if they only put 1/100th of the usual amount on a dish. But at regular strength it tastes like I’m getting a bucketful of spices in each bite. Just waaaay too much. In addition, I can’t then taste the food in the dish at all. It’s completely overwhelmed. I don’t see the point of that since we are hopefully past the age of trying to cover up the taste of rotted food. Ordering reduced curry does nothing. They only cut back a tiny fraction. I have to go completely curry-free. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2016, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/83 "2016-06-15T16:45:34Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I also find that cilantro tastes soapy but still like it (in moderation), but that’s in spite of the soapy component of the flavor, not because of it. I can still taste the other components of flavor, that are presumably the only part most folks taste, and I like them well enough that I put up with the soapy part. I have wondered if the soapy-cilantro gene is dominant and so maybe can be expressed weakly if only one is present. Once in a while, especially in salsa where the cilantro is more-or-less raw, I’ll get a weak soapy taste. Not enough to make me spit it out (In fact I kinda like it.) but I certainly get enough to sense what people are talking about. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2016, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/84 "2016-06-15T17:00:29Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > In addition, I can’t then taste the food in the dish at all. It’s completely overwhelmed. I don’t see the point of that since we are hopefully past the age of trying to cover up the taste of rotted food. I am always surprised at how bland Mexican food is in a “real” restaurant. Indian cooking from a recipe is bland for me, too. ---
**Author:** ![TheseGoToEleven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@TheseGoToEleven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheseGoToEleven)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2016, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/85 "2016-06-15T17:24:53Z")
I’m surprised to only see one brief mention of Stevia here. For me, ANY artificial sweetener tastes like an chemical infusion of fake sweetness, which in fact it is, with a heavy emphasis on chemical. Soda, juice, candy, virtually anything that says “light” or “sugar-free”, tastes vile and vaguely poisonous to me. And believe me, I’ve tried all of the Zero varieties, whether Coke or Vitamin Water or whatever. One taste and I’m done. I’d rather take cough syrup. ---
**Author:** ![Haldurson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/51bf81/32.png) [@Haldurson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Haldurson)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2016, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/86 "2016-06-15T18:24:37Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > From what I read here, Brussel sprouts is an other example. Some people can taste their bitter taste, others can’t. > > Apparently, it’s genetics, but it’s not related to being a supertaster, who would notice all “weird” tastes in all foods. I notice the foul taste of cilantro, but I don’t feel the bitter taste of Brussel sprouts. The original story declared that it was due to a specific gene, but it turns out that it’s slighly more complicated than that: [The Broccoli Problem: Why Some People Taste Things More Bitter | Live Science](http://www.livescience.com/39578-why-some-hate-broccoli.html) ---
**Author:** ![Haldurson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/51bf81/32.png) [@Haldurson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Haldurson)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2016, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/87 "2016-06-15T18:34:19Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I am always surprised at how bland Mexican food is in a “real” restaurant. ‘Americanized’ Mexican food, can be very bland if you eat at the wrong restaurants. Tex-Mex and Cal-Mex is certainly not bland. It will also vary by the part of the country you are in (cooking in general, in the midwest, seems to be far more bland. Hell, Cal-Mex, at least way back when I was in College, was far more spicy than the mexican food I ever got in Mexico. Not that the restaurants in Mexico were bland, but they simply don’t go as overboard with the spice as they do in California. Heck, there’s an infamous all-night burger chain in Southern California (least it was around back in the early '80s), called “Tommy’s”. If you asked for a burger, no specification of what to put on it, you’d get it with chilli and jalapenos every time, and it would keep you up all night with indigestion. New Orleans, and much of Florida can be like that as well (Well, I haven’t been to either place recently – this is from memory). My brother took me out to a Mexican restaurant a few months ago and he wanted to try a new one, instead of the great one (with mariachis, and great food) that we used to go to all the time, and it was horribly bland. You can’t really generalize like that – not all mexican food is bland. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2016, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/88 "2016-06-15T18:40:54Z")
Tortas Mexico. Run by, and basically to serve Mexican folks. They serve hot sauce in a bottle on the side. I do like ‘real’ tacos, shredded beef, the (by some) dreaded cilantro, chopped onions on the side and the bottles of pepper sauce, red and green. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2016, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/89 "2016-06-15T21:50:33Z")
> [@DaphneBlack](#): > > I want to know: is there an anti-supertaster? Pretty much all elderly people. It’s quite common for many of us to have a greatly reduced sense of taste (and smell, which is a big part of taste). ---
**Author:** ![Kiyoshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kiyoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiyoshi)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2016, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/90 "2016-06-15T22:47:57Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > Most people say that celery doesn’t have much flavor, if any at all. > > Me, I say that celery is the taste equivalent of someone scratching their fingers down a chalkboard. Not much flavour? I’m surprised. To me, celery has an overwhelmingly strong, unpleasant taste that I can only describe as “brown”. Kind of like a very pungent, nasty spice. I had a thread a few years ago about how I find cucumbers and melons overpoweringly bitter and disgusting. A few people agreed with me, but the vast majority said that they were almost flavorless. Since then however, I’ve discovered that I love butternut squash, so I wonder if cooking kills whatever chemical causes the bitter taste? Oh and also, raw tomatoes are disgusting. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2016, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/91 "2016-06-15T23:16:18Z")
> [@Kiyoshi](#): > > Not much flavour? I’m surprised. To me, celery has an overwhelmingly strong, unpleasant taste that I can only describe as “brown”. Kind of like a very pungent, nasty spice… To Leopold Bloom, at least, according to Joyce, semen smelled like celery sauce. To round off this celery association, Molly remembers her afternoon:…I wouldnt mind taking him in my mouth if nobody was looking as if it was asking you to suck it so clean and white he looks with his boyish face I would too in 1/2 a minute even if some of it went down what its only like gruel or the dew… But we are far from cilantro now. ETA: **Kiyoshu** , if it’s not too much to ask, do _you_ think semen smells like celery? **Lightning** also. Me, I’ve thought about it, and can see (smell) the connection. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2016, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/92 "2016-06-15T23:30:53Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > And yet they are unable to absorb their own awful flavor. I’m really quite curious about the kind of mushrooms you’ve eaten. The reason is twofold. First, to most people mushrooms don’t have much flavor at all. They’re quite mild, and tend to soak up liquids which is one reason they absorb flavor. That said, mushrooms have quite different flavors (although again, mostly mild). The common white mushroom is really very different from the morel, and very different indeed from the truffle. Do these all taste the same to you? ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2016, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/93 "2016-06-15T23:36:31Z")
> [@MacLir](#): > > As a kid I couldn’t stand raw tomatoes - but it was texture, not taste. The slime/gel around the seeds grossed me out. Wash it out of the cut tomato and I was fine with the rest. Me too, I always try to scrape out the seeds and goo. Everything else about tomatoes is delicious, raw and otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2016, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/94 "2016-06-16T00:06:19Z")
> [@TheseGoToEleven](#): > > I’m surprised to only see one brief mention of Stevia here. For me, ANY artificial sweetener tastes like an chemical infusion of fake sweetness, which in fact it is, with a heavy emphasis on chemical. Soda, juice, candy, virtually anything that says “light” or “sugar-free”, tastes vile and vaguely poisonous to me. And believe me, I’ve tried all of the Zero varieties, whether Coke or Vitamin Water or whatever. One taste and I’m done. I’d rather take cough syrup. This in spades. I tried “Mio”, that drink flavor additive. “Add a little or add a lot”. It tasted like paint, and it tingled. ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2016, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/95 "2016-06-16T14:14:51Z")
> [@TheseGoToEleven](#): > > I’m surprised to only see one brief mention of Stevia here. For me, ANY artificial sweetener tastes like an chemical infusion of fake sweetness, which in fact it is, with a heavy emphasis on chemical. Soda, juice, candy, virtually anything that says “light” or “sugar-free”, tastes vile and vaguely poisonous to me. And believe me, I’ve tried all of the Zero varieties, whether Coke or Vitamin Water or whatever. One taste and I’m done. I’d rather take cough syrup. Obviously some sort of difference in taste receptors - I feel the same about saccharin and the “purely chemical” sweeteners, can tolerate Sucralose, since it is in fact sucrose modified to make it inassimilable, and have no problem with stevia. Although with the case of the concentrated taste mentioned earlier there is a “not-quite-right” element to the taste - not unpleasant, but sort of a gustatory “uncanny valley.” And it can vary with the use. I and others convinced a maker of high quality ginger ale to put out a version with stevia. The sugar version is great, other stevia sweetened sodas by the same maker are great, but the ginger ale was nasty. There must have been some interaction between the flavor elements from the ginger and the stevia, because it was not palatable. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2016, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/96 "2016-06-16T14:48:20Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Curry is a big problem for me. It might be okay if they only put 1/100th of the usual amount on a dish. But at regular strength it tastes like I’m getting a bucketful of spices in each bite. Just waaaay too much. > > In addition, I can’t then taste the food in the dish at all. It’s completely overwhelmed. I don’t see the point of that since we are hopefully past the age of trying to cover up the taste of rotted food. > > Ordering reduced curry does nothing. They only cut back a tiny fraction. I have to go completely curry-free. It sounds like you’re objecting to the overall intensity of the spicing, which is indeed strong and complex. It seems that most people who don’t like curry are actually objecting to cumin, which is a major ingredient in curries. For some, cumin smells like BO and tastes sour. ---
**Author:** ![67java89](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/aeb1de/32.png) [@67java89](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/67java89)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2016, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/97 "2016-06-17T23:13:53Z")
I love onions, but I have have an odd aversion to garlic. Even the smell of garlic bread baking makes me gag. It’s like garlic isn’t even a food. It’s more like a chemical smell. I have the cilantro/soap effect as well. On the other hand, I love the Brussels sprouts. They taste pleasant to me. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2016, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/98 "2016-06-18T00:50:41Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > It sounds like you’re objecting to the overall intensity of the spicing, which is indeed strong and complex. It seems that most people who don’t like curry are actually objecting to cumin, which is a major ingredient in curries. For some, cumin smells like BO and tastes sour. Cumin is fine- however, I have recently discovered that I do, in fact, like avocado. I had assumed that guacamole tasted so awful because of the avocado, but it turns out it’s the cilantro in it that makes it vile. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2016, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/99 "2016-06-18T01:10:10Z")
Liking cantaloupe is genetic, according to 23andMe’s research. ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2016, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/100 "2016-06-18T02:22:52Z")
How has no one mentioned beets yet? Most people find that beets have a pleasant sweet vegetable flavor, but to some of us, they just taste like dirt (I’m in the “taste like dirt” population). ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2016, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635/101 "2016-06-18T03:57:47Z")
> [@cwthree](#): > > they just taste like dirt That’s why I like 'em. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-other-foods-have-the-cilantro-effect/756635.md?page=6)