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So I've been watching a lot of DIY shows recently - since most television is crap nowadays. And cooking shows - be it how to or goal/prize based. I love the baking ones, just because bakers are crazy, but I've also seen a few of actually teaching people how to make things, and not to be intimidated by the mysterious implements in the kitchen.
I find this funny, because, well, I don't cook. Pretty much at all. It has never been something I enjoy, and while I can make a few dishes, and am able to follow a recipe and have it mostly turn out okay (although my mom was of the "if you must add salt, add less than half that a recipe calls for" camp, so I grew up adding very little salt to anything). Some things I just don't cook with. Onions, I hate. Unless they are pureed and unknowable I can't stand them in food. I pick them out. I pick them out of stews, sauces, just about anywhere they are visible those suckers end up on the side of my plate. Tomatoes have to be... non-chunks of tomato. Sauce is okay - sparingly, but not salsa.
Salads are never dressed. To me there is nothing worse than oily or icky salad dressing. I like my salad to TASTE like salad - plain, unadorned, naked.
Which brings me to the evil that is cilantro. Now, those that can, LOVE cilantro (also known as coriander). Most people have no taste-aversion to cilantro, and don't understand when I can tell immediately when fresh or dried cilantro has been added to my dish. It permeates the whole dish with a soapy taste.
It is very complicated and has to do with the chemistry of cooking, but I would no sooner eat anything with cilantro in it than I would willingly consume my bath soap for dinner. Some folks say they can *smell* a soapy odor, I don't generally smell it, but I sure can taste it. It makes dining out at a Mexican restaurant difficult, since cilantro shows up in anything from the table guacamole to your entree.
I know. Weird. But you know what? My whole family is the same way. I never encountered cilantro until I encountered it in a restaurant and couldn't eat what they served me since I couldn't verbalize what was wrong with it. I've since learned to ask if anything has cilantro in it.
But yeah, food shows when someone adds cilantro to a dish make me wince a little bit - because my gut reaction is "ew, ick - it sounded good right UP TO THAT POINT!"
I find this funny, because, well, I don't cook. Pretty much at all. It has never been something I enjoy, and while I can make a few dishes, and am able to follow a recipe and have it mostly turn out okay (although my mom was of the "if you must add salt, add less than half that a recipe calls for" camp, so I grew up adding very little salt to anything). Some things I just don't cook with. Onions, I hate. Unless they are pureed and unknowable I can't stand them in food. I pick them out. I pick them out of stews, sauces, just about anywhere they are visible those suckers end up on the side of my plate. Tomatoes have to be... non-chunks of tomato. Sauce is okay - sparingly, but not salsa.
Salads are never dressed. To me there is nothing worse than oily or icky salad dressing. I like my salad to TASTE like salad - plain, unadorned, naked.
Which brings me to the evil that is cilantro. Now, those that can, LOVE cilantro (also known as coriander). Most people have no taste-aversion to cilantro, and don't understand when I can tell immediately when fresh or dried cilantro has been added to my dish. It permeates the whole dish with a soapy taste.
It is very complicated and has to do with the chemistry of cooking, but I would no sooner eat anything with cilantro in it than I would willingly consume my bath soap for dinner. Some folks say they can *smell* a soapy odor, I don't generally smell it, but I sure can taste it. It makes dining out at a Mexican restaurant difficult, since cilantro shows up in anything from the table guacamole to your entree.
I know. Weird. But you know what? My whole family is the same way. I never encountered cilantro until I encountered it in a restaurant and couldn't eat what they served me since I couldn't verbalize what was wrong with it. I've since learned to ask if anything has cilantro in it.
But yeah, food shows when someone adds cilantro to a dish make me wince a little bit - because my gut reaction is "ew, ick - it sounded good right UP TO THAT POINT!"
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