being a cilantrophobist

until i came to ohio i didn't know that i was a cilantrophobist.

cilantro as in german "Koriander", is a green herb that looks pretty similar to the flat leafed version of parsley. but only the sight is similar. as soon as you approach the plant the fragrance will reveal the difference. parsley smells lovely fresh to me, cilantro stings my odor cells like a chemical. it smells soapy and pungent telling me to stay away.

but cilantro is a core ingredients in many foods u.s. americans love and consume without thinking. it's in salsa, it's in salads, it's in tabbouleh (a lebanese dish with bulgur, cucumber, tomatoes, and lemon juice), it's in burritos. [addendum: a friend from bangladesh pointed out i missed to mention south east asian use of the herb. of course, cilantro chutney or cilantro mint chutney is served in any indian restaurant. also my friend writes cilantro paste as a side is common in bangladesh or its use in salad.] it's everywhere. maybe just sprinkled on top for good looks. latin american and middle eastern cuisine are omnipresent in the united states. so is cilantro.












omnipresently disturbing: a few green leaves ruining the biggest dish.

but alas, even the most finely chopped tiniest amount of the evil green ruins the tasties dish for me. no wonder with my german taste buds. a new york times article of april 4, 2010 details understandably why maybe europeans especially struggle with embracing this flavor.

"The coriander plant is native to the eastern Mediterranean, and European cooks used both seeds and leaves well into medieval times. Helen Leach, an anthropologist at the University of Otago in New Zealand, has traced unflattering remarks about cilantro flavor and the bug etymology — not endorsed by modern dictionaries — back to English garden books and French farming books from around 1600, when medieval dishes had fallen out of fashion. She suggests that cilantro was disparaged as part of a general effort to define the new European table against the flavors of the old."

and it stayed like that at least in germany to this day. cilantro leaves are not part of most of what i know as german cuisine. parsley is the decorative green leave of choice. fresh chives and garden cress are other ones -- which by they way are by far not as popular in the united states as in germany.

so tasty alternatives have gotten germans off the cilantro track.

"If the flavor doesn’t fit a familiar food experience, and instead fits into a pattern that involves chemical cleaning agents and dirt, or crawly insects, then the brain highlights the mismatch and the potential threat to our safety. We react strongly and throw the offending ingredient on the floor where it belongs."

i can just repeat: where it belongs.

why hating cilantro is not your fault: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/dining/14curious.html