Visitors contribute their cilantro stories...

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 "I first ran across the stuff a few years ago when my sister-in-law made this "Mexican" meatloaf. She used fresh salsa with plenty of cilantro, instead of tomato sauce or ketchup. I ate it, but threw up later. I could not get the stench out of nostrils! Fast forward a few years and I am working as a cashier at the local grocery store. Thanks so much recession for this plum job! Anyhow, people would come through with bags of this crap. Most of the time I could avoid touching it or smelling it because the PLU code stickers were on the stems. Every now and again this wasn't the case! Since it closely resembles parsley I would have to ask the customer which it was. Sometimes though I would get a customer dealing with kids, or yapping on the phone so I couldn't ask. My bagger would say "smell it." I said "no you smell it!" "I hate the smell and taste of cilantro!" Now all my baggers smell it for me! I hate you PLU code 4889!! "




 "I like just about every food. There are some items from the insect or mollusk world that I'll probably never try, but other than that am adventurous and love all kinds of cuisines.

A few years ago I met my match. The setting was unremarkable...mexican lunch with coworkers. What was remarkable then, and a thousand times since, is that the intense, sharp, chemical-herby flavor in the salsa, the pico, and everything else gagged only me. Everyone else loved it. I have found this so very odd...and thought I must be the only one on the planet that hates this ubiquitous" mexican parsley" until just recently."




 "I just joined this site, because of my recent lunch experience here at work (although I have been on this site reading Cilantro "Horror" stories) I HATE CILANTRO! (I was pounding on the keys when I typed that)
anyways here it goes, well everybody here at work decided to order from a new local mexican restuarant, for dilivery,
well as I was going through the menu to see what sounded good, I read the ingredients to the burritos, and found that EVERY one contained CILANTRO!, I thought that it all sounded good until then, I figured I'd try the chicken burrito w/red sauce (it seemed like a safe bet) so I wrote that down and put in giant letters "NO CILANTRO", and I handed it to the person calling in the order, well her response was: "You don't like Cilantro"?, she said it like, I just told her I hated "babies" "puppy's" or "kitten's"
(insert the one you like most), anyways she felt compelled to tell everyone else about this, that was then (2) of my coworker's (who weren't odering from there) said they too hated Cilantro, it was then I decided they were my friends!, I didn't know we had that in common, we're basically "the black sheep" now.
anyways my wife equally hates it too,
I can't even count how many meals were ruined because of this "HORRIBLE" herb, all it takes is the most minute flake of this crap to ruin anything you're eating,
how on earth can anyone like this?, you would have to have no taste buds to like it!
I think the same people that like horrible music/movies & TV shows like it (I won't name any music,movies or TV shows, I don't want to offend anyone here, that's another topic)
I have many cilantro stories to tell, and I will, now that I have a place to do so.

oh the burrito I had for lunch was really good, I will go back, and one of my coworkers ordered a side of cilantro, and ate it in front of me, to show how much he loved it, I just think he's a bigger idiot, than he was before (with no taste buds)

"





 "At the very first dinner, with the family that were to be my inlaws, my girlfriend's mother made a tomato salad.
Normally I love tomato salad, so I took a huge helping.
At the first bite, I tasted something vile, and my gag reflex kicked in.
My mother always taught us to finish what is on our plates, and being this was the first dinner with these people, I thought I should try to choke it down.
. . .another bite, I nearly vomitted.
. . .one more try . . .this time my body said to me "Are you friggin' nuts ?!?" . . .and my throat closed up.
So now I have a giant pile of tomato salad on my plate, my girlfriend (now my wife) is saying "how rude, you took a big helping, you should eat it, you're going to insult my mom"
After explaining that I could not eat it . . .my body won't let me, we discovered the mystery ingredient was cilantro.

It seems more and more restaurants are using Cilantro these days.
I tell them I'm alergic to it.
Which judging by my body's reaction to it . . .I thought I was.
Turns out I just hate the taste.

Oddly enough, I can eat food prepared with Coriander"




 "It was January 1983 and I was touring the Galapagos on a small boat, 8 tourists and 3 staff--a relatively low-budget way to explore these incredible islands. First evening we had freshly caught fish, smothered in some green herb that rendered it nearly inedible. Feeling ill, I assumed it was the effects of the sea, though the waves were gentle. Next morning, scrambled eggs, again with green bits of something that looked like parsley but tasted like nothing I had ever been subject to before. Lunch, again freshly caught fish, seasoned with this same horrible green substance. Finally, when this evil herb appeared yet again at dinner, I used my inadequate Spanish to discover this was CILANTRO! The ship chef clearly was enamored with it. Somehow I was able to convey it was this herb, not the sea, that was making me sick. I have spent the last 27 years doing my best to avoid it, though this nefarious herb surfaces when I least expect it, like THE SPANISH INQUISITION! And nobody expects THE SPANISH INQUISITION!"





 "Can't believe that I actually found this site...I, too, am a cilantro HATER! I am almost 50 years old and it seems that it's only been in the last 15-20 years or so that cilantro is seemingly everywhere. It tastes like soap to me (actually, worse!)
My main beef is cilantro being added to foods where it really shouldn't be and with no warning on the menu. I expect to find it in Mexican food and Vietnamese food, so I know to ask for it without. But recently we were out to eat at a restaurant that we frequent and ordered the fried calamari. The menu said that it came with a marinara dipping sauce. When the plate arrived it was literally covered in chopped cilantro. What's the purpose of that? Being Italian-American, I know that we don't use cilantro in cooking; so with the marinara sauce, why would I even begin to think that it would have cilantro on the calamari? I called the waitress over and requested that she suggest to management that they disclose on the menu items that have cilantro as an ingredient. She looked at me like I had 2 heads, but said "OK"...guess she just figured she should placate the crazy lady :-) But I am getting increasingly frustrated with this trend!"




 "I went on a romantic date with my then boyfriend to a swanky and artsy thai restaurant. We decided to order the crystal rolls and playfully feed eachother on the silk couch. Then i felt IT and my eyes began to water and i began to choke on what tasted to be old soap. No amount of water would wash it out.

Noticing this, the waitress got the cheff to come out an ask what was wrong as they were worried. The cheff, a south east asian transvestite in a sun dress makes his/her way worried out of the kitchen and in a valley girl male voice asks if everythign is alright.

My boyfriend simply stated "It's just cilantro"


From then on cilantro has ruined many of my favourite dishes and hindered socialization with friends who adore cilantro rich viet food.
I feel like i'm guilty for offending friends, waiters and cooks with my cilantro distain.
This site freed me from the guilt! "




 "The college I went to boasted what might be the largest and most elaborate bank of vending machines ever assembled at that time. You could get everything from chips to soup to burritos. The vending machines were flanked by about 8 microwaves to heat those delicacies up.

I did my share of experimenting in college, but I was never crazy enough to try a vending machine burrito. But, sometimes on my visits for chips and soda, the whole bank of microwaves would be humming - with a hum you could feel as well as hear. But the worst thing was the smell emanating from those microwaves. It smelled like chemicals and hot dog mixed together. My guess was that the microwaves were spray cleaned with a commercial cleanser and not properly wiped out.

I wondered to myself how anyone could put their food in a device that smelled like, and then I remembered these were people who ate vending machine breakfast biscuits.

It wasn't until later, at a mexican restaurant that I smelled that commercial cleanser again and was informed it was an herb and was put into the salsa intentionally! I can't smell that stuff without feeling like microwaves are penetrating my skull through my eye socket."




 "It happened about 15 years ago and I had never even heard the word cilantro before so had no idea what it was. We were eating at a Mexican food restaurant and the server set a bowl of salsa in front of us. I took one bite and told my husband that somebody had accidently spilled Ivory liquid in the salsa so we called over the server and asked to have it replaced. She seemed puzzled but complied. The next batch tasted exactly the same so we gave up that night. Next time we went back, same deal with the salsa so I knew something odd was going on. I asked to get some clarification on the salsa ingredients and she said it contained cilantro. I've learned to expect it now in foods and no longer send salsa back to the kitchen but it still tastes vile. There should be a warning on every item that contains this noxious weed."




 "I first tasted it 19 years ago when eating at a Mongolian BBQ place. The icky taste was left on the grill and tainted my dish. Right then and there I knew it was awful. It started showing up all over the place. What are they thinking? How could people like this rank stuff? It's a mystery."





 "Once I was cooking up some roasted red pepper soup. A friend had said it would be good to add in some cilantro. So I did.
All I could taste was the horrible cilantro. I hated it! It totally ruined my delicious soup and I felt stormy the rest of the night. And now everyone who ate the soup loves cilantro and begs me to use more in my recipes! Then I was at the store, and someone who ate my soup spied a bottle of cilantro. "Use this!" she squealed. I reluctantly was forced to buy more cilantro. Thus my sad run-in with the herb."




 "Like most others, I first encountered this vile, disgusting ingrediant by chance through steak tacos. After inspecting the food to find the root cause of it, I saw the chopped up green leaves and, even though I didn't at the time know what the herb was, I knew right away that the chopped up herb was the culprit. I asked the cook what it was and he told me, cilantro. Since then, I go out of my way to tell anyone, NO CILANTRO, or I hate cilantro. This is how I discovered the site. I Googled, I hate cilantro and this wonderful Web-resource was the first link (I'm buying some shirts). The ingrediant has become disturbingly ubiquitous in all areas of food service. I began to think it was me who had the issue. Later, a nutritionist informed me that it could be genetic in nature. Indeed, this is the only ingrediant that I can think of that is so offensive to me, but not offensive to most others. I am not sure why we were the lucky ones to be able to taste cilantro in its true hidious nature. Everyone who I have asked describes its flavor as mild. Hmmmmm, as you all know, cilantro is ANYTHING but mild. Therefore, I have concluded that we experience cilantro in its true form whereas, most others taste something like parsley, which I like. In fact, I enjoy the flavor of all herbs except for cilantro. One thing is for certain, all cilantro haters must push this fight forward collectively. Everyone in the food preperation industry needs to know that this ingrediant is blatantly offensive to a small but still significantly sized group of people who all want to vomit at the sight, smell or taste of cilantro, which should never happen. I believe that this is the reason brands like La Victoria and Pace have resisted the trend to add cilantro to their salsas, thank goodness. Those that want it can add it themselves. Unless culterally infused in the particlar cuisine such as in mexican and thai, cilantro should be an ingrediant that is avoided at all costs or included at request only. Never be shy about expressing your hatred for cilantro. Anyone offended by it does not care or understand why this is such a critical and passionate issue for those that it affects so negatively. "




 "I grew up in a family that had a fairly limited taste in foods, and never encountered cilantro until this spring(I'm 30). In my wish to have a large edible garden in our new house's yard, I planted a large herb garden including a variety of parsleys, chives and the like as well as 4 cilantro plants, which I understood to be like a spicy parsley.

When I was finished planting I wiped sweat from my mustache with the side of my hand and was overcome with an awful smell and a strong sense of nausea. I thought I'd contaminated my hand with ferilizer or some other garden chemical that was foul-smelling, so I washed my hands well and tidied up my tools. Later that day I picked a few leaves from some of my herb plants (including the cilantro) to put on a home made pizza. I'd finished chopping everything up on the same cutting board, and was suddenly struck by a strong rotten odour. I leaned towards the cutting board and took a sniff. Big mistake! It was disgusting! I then picked up the pepperoni stick I has just taken slices from and smelled it. Same disgusting smell. Conclusion: it must be rotten. So I threw it away and everything else that had touched it or shared that knife including the cilantro. I ended up having something else for supper because a pepperoni-less pizza is not worth eating, let alone making.

A few days later I was weeding my herb patch, and I smelled the same digusting smell again. 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.

At last, mystery solved! My poor innocent pepperoni! Framed by the evil cilantro and condemned to the garbage by my unwitting hands!

I just came in 20 minutes ago from mowing and edging the lawn. I'm happy, uh I mean sorry, to report that the cilantro met with a serious and lethal accident when I was passing with the weed whacker. Whoops!

:)"




 "I remember so clearly the first time I smelled......let alone tasted cilantro. My husband Pete, our son Glen, then 6 years old(he's 33 now, so that was 27 years ago)and myself were on a climbing /hiking trek in Peru.It was in Cuzco, that ancient town of the Incans. We were all feeling a little hungry and so went into what looked like a reasonably clean local place off the main square. We ordered a rotisserie chicken dish, usually a safe bet in third world countries. It arrived smothered in cilantro. Our first thought was "What's that incredible smell of one-week-old-dishwater?". We removed as much as was humanly possible from the meal, and ate what we could find that was least infected. Needless to say, we were all violently tossing our cookies within a few hours.
But it's not just the association of cilantro with unpleasant memories. It's now everywhere. You can't damn well escape it! Thai chefs incorporate it so thoroughly into foods, it's impossible to pick it out. When you ask Chinese cooks to leave it out of a dish,they say they prepare using it, and can't remove it. International chefs think it's chichi to include it in just about everything....don't they know it covers the flavour of just about any other food?.
Now our local pub is putting the disgusting stuff into salads and using it as a garnish.
In our garden in central B.C. I planted a package of mixed herb seeds. Guess which one thrived? Guess which one reseeded itself year after year, in spite of 30 below winters and constant predations from slugs and snails? You got it!It's also indestructible.
This morning, I looked up a recipe for curried chickpeas on Google, intending to use it as a side dish for supper tonight. Lo and behold..........the first three recipes have cilantro chopped into and sprinkled over....
And that, my friends, is what decided me to write to this site."




 "My first encounter with this nasty ,disgusting herb was through my ex brother-in-law,a chef.He had a thing for it...even seemed to like it as he used it in almost everything.Even now the memory of it ,as I write this makes me cringe.It took me a while to figure out ,what was that DISGUSTING taste?Oh God the horror.Now I avoid it at all costs.Why oh why do people put this in food.can't they taste it?do they really think it it good?"




 "My first experience with this vile, wretched weed was in Mexico in 1998. If there's one food I love and adore with the same maniacal intensity as I despise cilantro, it's avocados. That's why I was so confused when I would order guacamole and there would be this horribly offensive taste. I put it down to Mexican avocados and decided not to eat them again.

I explained the curious situation to my sister back home, who said it was probably coriander as we call it in London. She then declared with a disdain I hadn't ever seen from her in all the years I had lived with her, that she "HATED coriander!". Everyone in my family agreed and as we never cook with it, the issue never came up again.

There were scattered incidents. At a Vietnamese restaurant, I was served a soup covered in cilantro; I refused to pay. A girlfriend of mine took me to a Moroccan restaurant, I was starving and the dish came with the vile green weed. I took the cilantro out by hand and childishly threw it on the floor, such was my vexation.

In 2001, I went to Brazil for the first time and that's when my hatred of cilantro reached maniacal proportions. They put it on EVERYTHING and in EVERYTHING. They put it in sauces, in rice, in salad, in pepper sauce, in meat. Not a little..a WHOLE lot. It took me ages to find out the name in Portuguese - cuentro or cheiro verde "green smell" - depending on where you are. People don't even consider it a seasoning or an additional ingredient, it's an integral, fundamental component of EVERYTHING they cook. Arguments ensued, restaurant bills were left unpaid after explaining unequivocally that NO cilantro should be put in my food. There were physical altercations. Families and hosts were offended, some mildly, some severely.

As other people will testify, asking people to put NO cilantro, often means LESS cilantro. Even a slightest morsel of cilantro makes me gag and want to vomit. If in a store with fresh cilantro, I would almost vomit when smelling that rotting corpse-like stench. My ears itch and my nose stings as with a food allergy. Worse still, when I explain my revulsion to any non cilantro-haters, they assume I just haven't had it properly prepared and proceed to force all manner of cilantro-containing dishes on me in the hope of "setting me straight".

On many an occasion, I would be seated picking pieces of cilantro from my food, cursing furiously and would be approached by a sympathetic person who once had the same revulsion but over time and in the face of seemingly endless attacks of cilantro had given up and accepted life with cilantro.

They believed they were alone in the struggle.

For each person I met that had given in, that had wavered and not had the strength to continue the fight, I became emboldened. I felt it was my duty to be as vociferous as possible and stop this gastronomic treachery. Since then , I have never passed up an opportunity, whether relevant or not, to express my hatred for the vile, wretched and disgusting weed known as cilantro.

The invariable question always comes - "How can something so simple be so offensive to you?" I return the question to them. "How can something so vile be so INoffensive to you?"

I cannot begin to express what joy it has brought me to hear the stories of fellow cilantro haters on this website. Spookily, we even use the same words to express our disgust. All your stories have touched, moved and amused me and I salute you all, my fellow cilantro haters!"




 "Hello, fellow cilantro haters.

It's hard for me to talk about cilantro without experiencing traumatic flashbacks, but I feel that this is a supportive forum, and thus it is a safe place to discuss my experience.

For my twentieth birthday, my mother gave me a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, and I began experimenting with different recipes immediately. A very unexperienced cook, when a recipe for a breakfast burrito called for a "sprinkle" of cilantro, I thought nothing of it. I figured that this monstrosity of a plant would be like any other herb. Little did I know how wrong I was.

I drove to the grocery store, and being that I was in a rush, I neglected to take a whiff of the vile stuff before bagging it and making my way to the register.

I was starving when I got home. I wanted nothing more than to make that delicious breakfast burrito, and so I quickly assembled the various ingredients on the countertop and got ready to cook my food.

I followed the steps of the recipe, and then it got to the part about cilantro. The cookbook said I could take scissors to cut the leaves into small pieces, and so I rumaged through the silverware drawer until I found them. Grabbing a clump of cold wet cilantro from the bag, I brought it to my nose to see exactly what I'd be adding to my recipe. I took one sniff and almost threw up. It smelled unlike any herb I'd ever come across, and I took another (tiny) sniff to try to identify the malicious odor. What was that smell? Rancid green perfume, undescribable. However, I did not want to deviate from the recipe, so I took those scissors and began to cut through the tough, stubborn leaves.

This is where my story becomes a bit emotional.

The stink of the cilantro was released into the air as I began to snip the leaves. I tried to convince myself that it might taste differently than it smelled, that the recipe obviously had put it in there for a reason. About 30 seconds of cilantro snipping was too much, I had to throw it away. I shuddered as I threw the bowl and scissors into the sink, relieved to be done with the herbal fiasco that is cilantro. But oh no, it wasn't over. Because to my horror, the dreaded cilantro stink was all over my hands. !!! I ran the water hot as I could stand, scrubbing my fingertips ferociously with Palmolive but to my dismay, the stench lingered on my now pruny fingertips despite my thorough cleansing. I began to panic, washing again with hot water then cold, then back to hot, using up half the container of dishwashing liquid, scouring my skin till it was red and sore. After 10 minutes, I could stand it no more. I felt helpless as I smelled my fingers yet again, still able to vaguely detect the horrendous odor of cilantro on my skin. I was so hungry though, I simply gave up and sadly finished my recipe, WITHOUT a sprinkle of cilantro.

Needless to say, it took several more handwashings and a good long shower to completely eliminate the last traces of cilantro stink from my hands. Even after I took out the garbage that held the snipped cilantro, I swear I could smell it for the next two or three days. It was a nightmare that made me fearful of experimenting with other unfamiliar herbs for quite some time.

I'm glad I've found a support group that might help me to continue this long and arduous recovery process. I've warned many of my close friends about the vile nature of this dispicable plant, and am happy to report that many of them are in agreement with me. Those who aren't are questionable in nature and as a result, I do not trust their culinary opinions in any situation. Thank you for letting me tell my story, I appreciate the forum.

Love,

Sarah "




 "As a co-op student working at AMD, I was often surprised to discover cilantro sitting ever so deceptively upon my whitefish. Since fish was a commonly served meal at the cafeteria, I eventually grew weary of having to taste test every morsel they served. I decided to complain to the cafeteria administration, and low and behold, my complaint was taken to heart. I am proud to say that the amount of cilantro utilized by the kitchen staff has significantly decreased. "




 "Once in the market with my mom she was teasing me with a bunch of cilantro so i escape and throw the shopping cart then it crash with a big shelf of wine
"




 "I didn't even know what cilantro WAS until a year ago. I ordered a dish at a mongolian restaurant titled "lamb and cilantro". I like pretty much everything and so had no suspicions as to what I was in for. I'm not as sensitive to it as some people, but I could only eat half the dish. My mom asked what was wrong and I told her it tasted like gasoline!! It was really icky. Thankfully the hostess gave me my meal for free to make up for the distasteful experience."





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Please contribute YOUR cilantro story.