I generally dislike cilantro. I get the soapy metallic thing, though I usually just eat it if its in something rather than freaking out. But I do actively like the cilantro when its in certain Asian dishes. Like Bahn Mi for example. I think the fish sauce is covering up or deactivating what ever in the cilantro gives it that weird ass taste. And I can actually taste cilantro as its supposed to taste. Still tastes weird to me on its own so I’ve taken to slipping a bit of fish sauce into certain things, like pico de gallo
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The talk of picky eaters brings to mind this classic:
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I am not a big fan of coriander but I can stand it if I must, just keep the Chinese five spice away from my food
I found the same thing – I hated it as a kid (soapy), never much liked it in guacamole growing up, but then made a Goan shrimp curry that asked for a whole bunch of it, with coconut milk, and discovered how wonderful it made the dish. That experience started making me appreciate cilantro in other dishes as well.
I have a different genetic tasting oddity. Artificial sweeteners taste sickeningly sweet to me. Not just a little too sweet - they taste rotten! I’ve only rarely met people who have the same problem to this degree, and I know it’s genetic. My dad had the same issue.
It’s an Americas vs Europe/Asia thing. The UK and northern Europe call the seeds and leaves “coriander” from the Indian word. The US calls the leaves “cilantro” from the Spanish word, since the US is more familiar with Mexican cuisine. The leaf/seed split is presumably because the seed is mostly used in asian cuisine.
It’d be nice if they’d stop trying to decorate my food. Some restaurants seem to have this thing where they put some carrots, celery, and lettuce on your plate. If I wanted salad, I’d order salad. Leave my french fries alone. The moisture from the lettuce has made the fries that were sitting on it soggy. Thanks a lot.
Someone else had separated the different aromatic compounds of cilantro and found that, as a cilantro hater, he didn’t detect some of the compounds that others found pleasurable.
I would hypothesize that cilantro-hatred would be highly predictable by a combination of both soap+inability to taste.
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