I absolutely adore cilantro. I’d put it on ice cream if I thought I could get away with it. The taste… it’s hard to describe. “Fresh” is the closest I can describe, though.
On the other hand, celery. I can’t figure out why people insist it has a neutral taste… hell, I can’t understand how anyone can even eat the vile stuff. It’s taste equivalent of someone dragging their fingernails down a blackboard. Cook it all to hell and eventually it loses that taste, at which point I wonder, “Why bother?”.
Obviously I missed the earlier thread on the subject, because until just now I had no idea that this spice was so despised, and that there was actually a biological explanation for it and not just a bunch of people moaning “I just don’t like it”. Like me and cauliflower, for example; it invokes a gag reflex I just can’t do anything about. Very annoying, and the only vegetable I know of that does this. Of course, if you include meat, then I also can’t stand internal organs and such. Ick. And then some things I like the taste OK as long as I don’t have to touch it. I.e., tripe. If it comes in contact with my tongue, ewwwwww! But if it’s just used in a soup kind of like a bay leaf and I can remove it first before eating, then all is well.
Oh man, I love cilantro! But then again, I also like celery (if it’s fresh) and lettuce stems. Screw the leafy stuff, if it’s crispy and tastes green I’m for it.
I love celery leaves, celery, cilantro and parsley as well as any other greens including pretty much all herbs (except basil, ick.) My boyfriend often comments that when I make dishes with these ingredients, I go wayyyy overboard. Too bad for him. Maybe I was a rabbit in a former life.
Cilantro is a staple foodstuff where I come from and is served in a gazillion tons of salsa every day. I’ve never heard anybody say that salsa tastes like soap no matter how much cilantro is in it (the more the better BTW).
I’ve eaten so much cilantro in a Pappasito’s once that I got high off it. :eek:
Someone I once knew claimed to be allergic to cilantro, which I took to be sheer poppycock. But it was OK, less of my delicious salsa for her, more for me.
Well, I was going to say that this combination might be genetic, as I also absolutely adore cilantro and could live the rest of my life without ever touching celery again, but Spongess and Ghanima blew that theory out of the water. It is interesting to know that some tastes are genetic, though. Makes it really difficult for anyone to criticize anyone else’s taste in food, since you have no idea how the food is tasting to them.
