Cilantro: Bane of Existance?

[emotional leper]

Am I the only one who thinks Cilantro is extremely easy to overuse and tastes like soap?

[lucimay]

dry cuticles are the bane of my existance.

[Cameraman Jenn]

I do not care for cilantro either and yes, lots of places overuse it horrifically. I once got a salad at a cafe called, Red Door and it was like a plate of cilantro with a few mixed greens thrown in. I had to send it back. Yuck. Just Yuck.

[stonemaybe]

*sigh* It's called fresh coriander!!!!!!!!

And it has it's place, and in that place it is superb!


But yes, out of it's place, bleugh!

[Menolly]

Really. What Stone said. In it's place, and in the proper amount, cilantro (sorry Stone) is awesome.

But it can really, really easily overpower a dish.

[drew]

dry cuticles are the bane of my existance.

I find that even a small amount of dried cuticles in a salad really ruins the taste.

[DukkhaWaynhim]

When it is overused, to me it tastes like Clorox bleach smells.

dw

[Worm of Despite]

Has anybody tried a cilantro roll? It's served at my Chinese buffet. Instead of decorating the outside of a California roll with tobiko (fish eggs), they smother it in cilantro. Very tasty.

[Zarathustra]

I love cilantro. I use it sometimes in salads. And put loads of it in my fresh salsa. It does have a unique flavor . . . but strong? No. I don't think it is overpowering, like, say, garlic (though I love garlic, too). Given that you have to pick the individual leaves (I don't like stems), I've never found that it's easy to overuse. I usually get tired of plucking the leaves long before I've put in too much. I've never eaten anything at a restaurant that had too much, either.

[drew]

Oh yeah salsa...cilantro is as important in salsa as jalapeno's or tomatos.

[DukkhaWaynhim]

Are there different varieties, some of which might taste like bleach? I like salsa and pico de gallo, so I'm obviously not allergic to it or anything. But sometimes, the flavor just stands out like a cold sore in a prom photo.

dw

[JazFusion]

I love cilantro. I'm a huge fan of Mexican and Thai dishes, both of which use it a lot. I think it tastes like a mix between parsley and lemon; it's fresh without being overpowering. It's a must in my salsa and as a garnish for my chicken satay.

[emotional leper]

To me, Cilantro tastes like bar soap.

[wayfriend]

And it has it's place, and in that place it is superb!

But yes, out of it's place, bleugh!

Every weakness is a strength misapplied, and every strength is a weakness which has found its proper use.

[JazFusion]

To me, Cilantro tastes like bar soap.

Dove or Irish Spring?

[duchess of malfi]

I love cilantro. I grow it in my garden every summer. I pluck off leaves and eat them when I work in the garden.

[Wyldewode]

I love cilantro in my favorite mexican restaurant's salsa, and I love it on their carne asada tacos. They have the best cliantro I've ever tasted. But when I buy it from the store, it doesn't taste nearly as good (sometimes it tastes soapy to me too). I guess the real experiment would be to grow my own and see how it tastes. But for now, I'll go to Acambaro and eat cilantro on my carne asada tacos.

[Rawedge Rim]

Throw it in the salsa baby. Or better yet, use culantro which has a similar but even stronger flavor.

[Damelon]

I like a little cilantro sprinkled in a quesadilla filling. Quick and easy meal.

[Prebe]

I love it in moderation in the right dishes, like menolly. But it is an acquired taste. One of my friends says that it tastes like somebody has been sweatting in his food.

The name Coriander is derived from the greek word for bed-bug (Koris), that emit a similar pungent smell when crushed.

This gives me an odd feeling of deja-vue? Have I showed off that piece of trivia before?

Edit: A renewed research into the ethymology (entomology, heh!) shows, that the bedbug connection is a just that: a connection. The words actual origin seems to remain obscure, although

....from Greek “κορίαννον”.[1] John Chadwick notes the Mycenaean Greek form of the word, koriadnon, "has a pattern curiously similar to the name of Minos' daughter Ariadne, and it is plain how this might be corrupted later to koriannon or koriandron."[2]