Rebecca's Story     (More stories)


 I couldn't resist writing in, as I didn't see any stories on your site from anyone of Indian descent. As you know we use a ton of spices in our food, including paprika, cinnamon, fennel seed, and ground coriander. I had never tasted coriander (cilantro) leaves until I first tried Thai food and it was served chopped up on my pad thai. It immediately made me nauseous. A few years later my husband bought a bunch of groceries, one of which was supposed to be parsley. I'll never forget the stench that emanated from the plastic bag. I didn't even have to open it to know he'd bought cilantro by mistake. The smell literally makes me nauseous. I agree with previous comments that cilantro was never widely used until the 1990s, and I NEVER had it in Indian food until very recently. Once an Indian guy I know accused me of "not being a real Indian" because I didn't like cilantro! I replied that not a single dish made by my mother or any of our family/friends in the Indian community contained cilantro. So whatever the recent trend is, it is certainly not traditional.







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