Everybody has at least one food that they just can't stand. For me, it's olives. I know some folks eat them like candy, but if an olive has ever touched a pizza, that pie is ruined for me. It's a write-off. Sorry, not sorry.
It turns out that for thousands of others, that one food is cilantro, and there's a good reason for that.
It's a bit confusing because many use "coriander" and "cilantro" interchangeably, although technically speaking, they are slightly different. They come from the same plant, but at different stages in its development.
When the plant flowers and develops seeds, those seeds become the spice coriander.
It's also a regional thing, where some areas refer to cilantro as coriander. It's all pretty odd, but the bottom line is, people out there freaking hate this plant, and no, hate is not too strong a word for their feelings.
If nothing ruins a taco for you like cilantro, you're not alone. About 10% of people are going to be pre-disposed to hating the herb, with a gene that enhances cilantro's soapy flavor.
Basically, if you have the gene, you are able to taste the aldehydes in the plant that those without the gene can't. Which wouldn't be so bad if aldehydes didn't taste like dish soap.
Not that you can really blame them, since entire cultural cuisines are cilantro minefields. It gets tiresome to check every ingredient list for a single herb that will ruin the experience.
If there's anything Facebook can do, it's bring a group of people with a shared hatred of something together so they can share their memes and agree with each other.
And, folks, the "I Hate Coriander" group is pretty impressive in its searing loathing for these leaves.
It looks like many of the group's members are from Australia, and they're not even a little bit shy about stating their aversion.
What do you think? Are you pro-cilantro or firmly in the hater's camp with at least 200,000 others?
