the demon herb

My hate for cilantro runs true and deep. I enountered it for the first time when eating Vietnamese pho. I was maybe a mere 12 years old. So young, so innocent. I remember how the restaurant looked, how excited I was because my parents had been hyping up how good pho was, how I was further enticed by Vietnamese food with the delicious coffee dripping onto sweetened condensed milk and the fresh, soft spring rolls as appetizers.

Happy go lucky little kid I was until I had 1 spoonful of soup that had been "seasoned" by the innocent looking cilantro floating on top. I only needed one taste to be whipped back into the harsh reality that is the DEMON HERB. It seared into my taste buds like hydrochloric acid into my clothes in chemistry lab. I didn't even know it at the time that it was the DEMON HERB. I thought it was the soup, and I had decided that pho was the worst dish in the world, and how could anyone with any sense eat it for enjoyment??? What was wrong with my parents???

I've known other people to have a similar revulsion to cilantro, and it is always steee-RONG. Others describe it as a soapy taste. For me, it's more like a combination of chemicals (like those that you find in chem lab) and barf. Yes, barf. I don't want to eat barf.

Through the years, I've learned to deal with cilantro-ridden foods. The most difficult is salsa, but I carefully and patiently pick every bit of cilantro out before eating my burrito. The stems are the worst and the hardest to get out since they're often chopped pretty small. It might take me and extra 20 minutes to eat, but it's worth it. And don't worry, I now like pho but clearly order it without cilantro. CLEARLY.

For other wonderful stories from cilantro haters, visit: ihatecilantro.com. If you'll notice, it is always an extreme reaction to cilantro. Some gems:

"I hate you PLU code 4889!" - grocery store cashier

"It smelled like chemicals and hot dog mixed together"

"I started looking around for a dead rodent, and soon realized that it was coming from the cilantro plants. I picked a leaf, held it to my nose, and nearly threw up in my garden."

I've been told that it's a genetic thing; Sister has it too, "it" being cilantrophobia. My cousin recently sent me an article about it.

Here's an excerpt:

Flavor chemists have found that cilantro aroma is created by a half-dozen or so substances, and most of these are modified fragments of fat molecules called aldehydes. The same or similar aldehydes are also found in soaps and lotions and the bug family of insects.

Soaps are made by fragmenting fat molecules with strongly alkaline lye or its equivalent, and aldehydes are a byproduct of this process, as they are when oxygen in the air attacks the fats and oils in cosmetics. And many bugs make strong-smelling, aldehyde-rich body fluids to attract or repel other creatures.

The author of the article also mentioned how he used to be a cilantrophobe, but kept encountering it in happy settings, and so rewired his brain to eventually enjoy said DEMON HERB! The article also cites a study that says if you crush the leaves, the enzymes from the leaves will break down the aldeydes. It says the cilantro pesto is pretty mild.

It's encouraging to know that I can work on my cilantrophobia, but honestly, I'm not willing to put the work in. The torture is not worth it to me, so I will continue to take an extra 20 minutes to pick out cilantro from my salsa.