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the cilantro wars
Apr. 15th, 2010 08:50 amSo far, my previous post about cultural customs that have changed for the better hasn't produced any rants in defense of tobacco, though there are smokers out there who believe that non-smoking rules are only promulgated by puritans who wish to deny themselves, and everyone else, a pleasure. It's one of those examples of, "Everyone is really like me" thinking.
A little more of it may be found in Scalzi's post announcing a survey on cilantro. Scalzi likes cilantro, and suggests that people who dislike it might be converted if they tried his wife's salsa. I trust he's saying that just as a humorous compliment to her. But others seem really to believe that. The NY Times article Scalzi links to quotes someone who says that dislike is a result of associations and you can train yourself out of it. Also see comment #117, "I think the real problem is not that people don’t like it, but that they are not willing to push themselves out of their comfort zones. If they try it a couple times they’ll learn to like it, but they won’t."
Now that is true for some people, as we'll see. But if #117 would just read #107 above, it'd be clear that it's not for everybody: "Cilantro has an almost unutterably loathsome taste. Picking it out of the food doesn’t begin to address the situation." And #107 isn't even speaking of himself; he's indifferent to cilantro and the reaction he's describing is his wife's. #107 has empathy; he knows that not everyone is like him.
#121 doesn't see what the problem is. "No one is forcing you to eat the stuff." Unfortunately, that's not true. Cilantro used to be little heard of, at least around here, but this is another cultural change: it's suddenly in all sorts of cuisines now, and sometimes not just sprinkled on top but unremovably embedded: mixed in the pre-made ingredients, and in places where the server doesn't even know it's there if you ask. (And if you say, "just pick it out, then," re-read #107.)
Scalzi hasn't toted up the answers yet, but I've gone through the first 300 comments and come up with this from those who offer testimony, assuming they don't repeat themselves:
So of the respondents, a full 24% absolutely despise the stuff. Now, not every restaurant can accommodate every taste: there's probably not a food in the world that somebody doesn't hate. But it seems to me that such a strong reaction from that many people means that the stuff ought not to be ubiquitous or unremovable from most dishes before cooking. People with things like celiac disease or peanut allergy are accommodated in this way; so should the cilantrless.
I'm not speaking for myself. I'd add myself to the 10 indifferent. If I try a sprig of cilantro by itself, I can detect how it would taste soapy to other people, but as an ingredient I can hardly tell that it's there. It's almost like parsley. For me, parsley is a decorative garnish added for appearances only: it never struck me that it's supposed to have a taste. I'm far less mystified by cilantro-hating than I am by cilantro-loving. I like herbs, and use herb mixtures a lot in cooking, but actually raving over the taste of a particular herb is something beyond my powers of imagination.
But I am certainly sympathetic. I know people who despise cilantro, and I believe them. People react differently to medications, why not to foods? To argue over this is like arguing over other individual differences. "I'm 5-foot-4." "Well, I'm 5-foot-9! You must have mis-measured yourself!" (Worse still: "You could grow if you really wanted to!") The ubiquitous food I really dislike is potato. The mealy texture, and also the taste. (Some tell me the potato, like the parsley, is tasteless. But if so, why do some people love it so much?) I'll only eat it if it's burned to a crisp, so I do eat potato chips (or as they're more accurately called in Britain, crisps). This is why I've never visited Ireland, where, by the accounts of friends who've been there of the food served, I'd probably starve before I could get out of there.
A little more of it may be found in Scalzi's post announcing a survey on cilantro. Scalzi likes cilantro, and suggests that people who dislike it might be converted if they tried his wife's salsa. I trust he's saying that just as a humorous compliment to her. But others seem really to believe that. The NY Times article Scalzi links to quotes someone who says that dislike is a result of associations and you can train yourself out of it. Also see comment #117, "I think the real problem is not that people don’t like it, but that they are not willing to push themselves out of their comfort zones. If they try it a couple times they’ll learn to like it, but they won’t."
Now that is true for some people, as we'll see. But if #117 would just read #107 above, it'd be clear that it's not for everybody: "Cilantro has an almost unutterably loathsome taste. Picking it out of the food doesn’t begin to address the situation." And #107 isn't even speaking of himself; he's indifferent to cilantro and the reaction he's describing is his wife's. #107 has empathy; he knows that not everyone is like him.
#121 doesn't see what the problem is. "No one is forcing you to eat the stuff." Unfortunately, that's not true. Cilantro used to be little heard of, at least around here, but this is another cultural change: it's suddenly in all sorts of cuisines now, and sometimes not just sprinkled on top but unremovably embedded: mixed in the pre-made ingredients, and in places where the server doesn't even know it's there if you ask. (And if you say, "just pick it out, then," re-read #107.)
Scalzi hasn't toted up the answers yet, but I've gone through the first 300 comments and come up with this from those who offer testimony, assuming they don't repeat themselves:
- 110 unreservedly like cilantro. Many, even most, of these, actually rave about how wonderful it tastes.
- 60 unreservedly hate it. Opinions of the taste vary: soap, bug spray, old socks, metallic, or something so dank and loathsome they can't describe it. A couple say they're allergic: it causes internal distress.
- 45 are mixed. Most of these like it in small quantities, but say that too much can quickly overpower a dish, or that it's OK as an ingredient in salsa but not by itself. A few, especially near the top of the thread, say they dislike the taste but they like to eat it anyway. (I don't quite follow that part.)
- 11 say they used to dislike it, but have learned or are learning to like it. That's 11, compared to 60.
- 2 say they've gone the other way: they used to like it, but now they don't.
- 10 are indifferent to the taste. It doesn't do anything for them one way or the other.
- 9 don't know what it tastes like. They've either never had it or are unaware of it.
So of the respondents, a full 24% absolutely despise the stuff. Now, not every restaurant can accommodate every taste: there's probably not a food in the world that somebody doesn't hate. But it seems to me that such a strong reaction from that many people means that the stuff ought not to be ubiquitous or unremovable from most dishes before cooking. People with things like celiac disease or peanut allergy are accommodated in this way; so should the cilantrless.
I'm not speaking for myself. I'd add myself to the 10 indifferent. If I try a sprig of cilantro by itself, I can detect how it would taste soapy to other people, but as an ingredient I can hardly tell that it's there. It's almost like parsley. For me, parsley is a decorative garnish added for appearances only: it never struck me that it's supposed to have a taste. I'm far less mystified by cilantro-hating than I am by cilantro-loving. I like herbs, and use herb mixtures a lot in cooking, but actually raving over the taste of a particular herb is something beyond my powers of imagination.
But I am certainly sympathetic. I know people who despise cilantro, and I believe them. People react differently to medications, why not to foods? To argue over this is like arguing over other individual differences. "I'm 5-foot-4." "Well, I'm 5-foot-9! You must have mis-measured yourself!" (Worse still: "You could grow if you really wanted to!") The ubiquitous food I really dislike is potato. The mealy texture, and also the taste. (Some tell me the potato, like the parsley, is tasteless. But if so, why do some people love it so much?) I'll only eat it if it's burned to a crisp, so I do eat potato chips (or as they're more accurately called in Britain, crisps). This is why I've never visited Ireland, where, by the accounts of friends who've been there of the food served, I'd probably starve before I could get out of there.
