Cilantro was NOT part of the Mexican food I ate 40+ years ago

[AussieDave]

I grew up in south Texas (San Antonio) and my family ate Mexican food weekly - cilantro was definitely NOT in any of it. I can only guess that some "chef" decided it would be a good idea to "jazz up" Mexican food by adding this noxious weed.

Now it's difficult to find a place that DOESN'T use the wretched stuff. :puke:

[Left Is Write]

1. I wasn't eating Mexican food 40 years ago...

but I agree with you about cilantro. I don't like it.

[AussieDave]

2. I honestly don't know where the fad came from

Fortunately when my Mom makes enchiladas she never uses the stuff.

[KT2000]

3. Can't even stand to

walk past the fresh cilantro in the store. I swear it does not taste like it is food at all.

[Xipe Totec]

23. Here is a support group for you

I love cilantro, but that doesn't mean everybody has to.

http://www.ihatecilantro.com/

[KT2000]

I thought I was alone!!!

Thak you so much for the lifeline!
:rofl:

[SharonRB]

53. OMG -- there's actually a group?

:rofl:

[Radio_Lady]

54. There's a support group for almost everything on the Internet

http://www.egyptexplored.com/cairo.htm


Holiday Inn pool area, on our visit to Giza, Egypt (1984)

[SharonRB]

55. Doesn't surprise me -- it's funny, though

I really, really, really hate cilantro and it's nice to see I have a lot of company.

[ComerPerro]

73. that site is hilarious. Testimonials, haikus...

[leftofthedial]

4. I never had cilantro in Mexican food until the last 15 years or so

it's an affectation

like lime juice in guacamole or limes in beer.

and I'm nearly deathly allergic to cilantro, which sucks

[yvr girl]

5. I LOVE cilantro

To each their own.

[WindRavenX]

48. me too

:)

[grace0418]

6. There is a huge Mexican population in Chicago, and I've definitely had

plenty of cilantro in the food I've had at even the most down-home-catering-mostly-to-immigrants restaurants. Cilantro isn't my number one favorite herb but I like it just fine.

[Puglover]

7. Could this be the start of the

Cilantro flamewar?

:scared:

Cilantro to me is an aquired taste like coffee.

The first time I tried coffee :puke:. Now I love it. Same with cilantro.

[Rhiannon12866]

13. It's not the start, it's a continuation, LOL.

Opinion seems to be divided on cilantro.:rofl:

[SPKrazy]

39. Cilantro Tastes Good If The Salsa Recipe Is Right

otherwise it just makes the salsa suck!

But, overall, a good salsa is one that has cilanro in my opinion and if it tastes good with cilantro, then it is good.

[Rhiannon12866]

42. I'm not fond of cilantro, my friend.

Though I'd be willing to try it in the right recipe. :-)

[SPKrazy]

47. Like I Said, If The Salsa Is Right, The Cilantro Works

otherwise, cilantro isn't really very tasty

[Rhiannon12866]

58. The consensus seems to be that either you like it or you hate it.

I am not fond of it, and I've run into numerous other threads condemning it, LOL. But I just may never have had it prepared exactly right. I cook, but I've always avoided it. I'm better with basil. :-)

[Left Is Write]

36. Just don't put the cilantro IN your coffee!

[xchrom]

8. i love cilantro and it's always been a part of mexican food

that i know of.

however -- i've recently learned that some people will -- i'm not sure i'm going to word this right -- have a genetic predisposition to disliking some herbs like cilantro.

it's not a matter acquiring a taste for it -- your body just has a very negative reaction to it.

[philosophie_en_rose]

9. I HATE cilantro. It tastes like it should be some sort of drain cleaner.

:puke:

[trof]

63. Same here. I've read that it's genetic.

Cilantro just doesn't taste the same to us as most folks.
I can best describe my experience as evoking the same taste as when, as a kid, I'd get water up my nose in an over-chlorinated pool.

[yellowdogintexas]

10. The use of cilantro may be a regional thing in Mexico, so if

the cooks are from a certain region, they either do or do not use it.

I love it. Now I did not become acquainted with it until I moved to Fort Worth and ate in some of the family owned restaurants around here. I kept trying to figure out what the missing ingredient was in my salsa and finally figured out it was cilantro. Some of my Mexican American friends tell me their grandmothers always had it growing in the backyard kitchen garden.

Some restaurants here do not use it, others do. I encountered it in Cozumel at every restaurant and the Mayan owner/chef of our bed/breakfast used it in the Mexican breakfast treats. I also encountered it in New Mexico and Colorado. It is an essential ingredient in pico de gallo.

Cilantro is also known as Chinese Parsley and coriander and is used heavily in Indian food..and other cuisines. You just couldn't have a good Vietnamese soup without it. The wikipedia article is fabulous and supports the genetic theory of why some people perceive its taste as being soapy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cilantro

[BikeWriter]

15. "It is an essential ingredient in pico de gallo." Exactly!

:applause:

[yellowdogintexas]

17. Pico de Gallo, makes you wanna cry-o, don't get it in your eye -o

It's PIco de Gallo.

LOL

[BikeWriter]

19. I loves me some Pico de Gallo!

:toast:

[tigereye]

11. love it!

it's very common in a lot of Asian dishes as well.

[Rhiannon12866]

12. I don't like cilantro, either, and I love Mexican food.

I found a really good recipe on The Food Network that called for basil and half the people who reviewed it said that they substituted cilantro for the basil. I don't get it, either, and I first had Mexican food in Mexico.:shrug::puke:

[Left Is Write]

37. See now, I *love* basil - I would never take out perfectly good basil...

and substituted cilantro!

[Rhiannon12866]

43. I love basil, as well. I make my own pesto using fresh basil

and have grown it, which I really need to do with any fresh herbs that I want to have, since they are scarce in grocery stores, here in the NY North Country. Here's the recipe from The Food Network that I referred to. Those that reviewed it said that the chef hated cilantro, so substituted basil. As far as I'm concerned, anything with basil would be something I'd like. :-)

Mexican Chicken Stew
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_34073,00.html?rsrc=search

[SPKrazy]

49. Pesto Needs Basil

Mexican Chicken Stew might be good with basil too

basil is pretty good in soups I think

[Rhiannon12866]

59. Pesto IS basil, LOL.

It's really very simple. EVOO, fresh basil, garlic, pine nuts, and two kinds of cheese, Parmesan and romano. And pesto is also good in minestrone. I have a great Italian cookbook. :D

I have yet to make the Mexican stew, but I'm going with the basil...:-)

[SPKrazy]

80. Okay, Didn't Realize Pesto Was Basil

but I love good Pesto!

[BlackVelvet04]

14. In southern Arizona it has been in common use for at

least 25 years.

I would think it depends on what region of Mexico the recipes are from.

[begin_within]

16. Cilantro is delicious! It's commonly used in Vietnamese food as well as Mexican.

[fudge stripe cookays]

18. I think it was probably Stephan Pyles who started the trend...

in his New Tastes from Texas cookbooks, and his restaurants Routh Street Cafe and Baby Routh in Dallas in the 80s.

I personally love the stuff, but know plenty of people who hate it.

[Xipe Totec]

20. Son, with all due respect,

Tex-Mex is not Mexican, and San Antonio is not South Texas.

I grew up in Mexico, and cilantro was an indispensable ingredient as far back as I can remember.

[BikeWriter]

22. You tell 'em! Cilantro for President!

[Xipe Totec]

24. President? No thank you!

we've had enough bushes for president.

:scared:

[BikeWriter]

25. LOL! Cilantro's no bush, it's an herb!

[Xipe Totec]

32. They get mighty big, if you let them go to seed

I've seem get 5 feet tall. I used to grow my own cilantro back in Houston.

Up here in New England, I'm lucky if I get it to grow to half a foot.

[Blue_In_AK]

35. Cilantro even grows in Alaska

but it goes to seed really fast with our long summer days. I've got a place in my garden where it comes in year after year. I'm a cilantro fan myself. Not only Mexican food, but Indian, Southeast Asian ... it just adds a great fresh taste, I think, but I know a lot of people can't stand it.

[Xipe Totec]

38. There's a Mexican confection

that has a coriander (cilantro) seed in the center.

When I bite a coriander seed, it always brings memories of my childhood.

[Zookeeper]

44. Oops.

Self-delete. (I'm getting my spices confused.)

[havocmom]

57. I get it to three feet when I let it flower and go to seed where I live.

Have some growing in the back yard now. Planted more when the really hot part of summer was over, as it doesn't like the heat much. Manage to keep it growing into January, but it stays low to the ground on shorter stems in the cold of fall and early winter here. And 'here' is Montana.

That is one tough to kill tasty weed! Green in Montana in January! Viva Cilantro!

[Gormy Cuss]

72. Our plants were about 4 feet tall when we let them go to seed

They produce a large quantity of seed, too.

[Xipe Totec]

76. My yard was very shady,

which makes plants grow leggier trying to catch more sun.

:hi:

[leftyladyfrommo]

64. We have to take a bottle of our own salsa to the restaurant - we can't

stand cilantro either.

[grace0418]

67. Thank you, I was hoping someone actually from Mexico would chime in

and say what I would be dismissed for saying (being from Chicago).

[martymar64]

21. I saw more cilantro in Califa than Tejas

I happen to love Mexican food and after moving back to Texas from Los Angeles, it was a big culture shock vis a vis the Mexican cuisine. I found that Tex-Mex doesn't use cilantro and it uses cheddar cheese and good luck finding carne asada, it's fajitas everywhere. I happen to love cilantro now, but it did take some getting used to. As far as the cheese, the best is the queso fresco that falls like fluffy white snow when you grate it. The Tex-Mex "queso" tends to gross me out though.

[carlydenise]

26. I am a transplated New Mexican living in the northern tier

I can't find cilantro much less any resemblence of Mexican food here. I went to a restaurant a couple of years ago, their "tamales" were made of chicken, wrapped in masa mixture (no red sauce in the chicken, just plain chicken with...cheese wrapped in the mixture then wrapped in a corn husk....they have no idea what a sopapilla is, carne asada, empanadas....I go on vacation to NM and bring back chile, sauce, chilis etc..enough staples for the upcoming year. I don't usually cook with cilantro in my dishes.
Carly

[GirlinContempt]

27. sopapilla

mmmmm you just made me hungry

[joneschick]

41. so then I had to go see what a sopapilla would be

what's in it? Sure, I could google a recipe, but here I can hijack a thread :hi:

[carlydenise]

45. sopapilla

flour, water, pinch of salt, baking powder...rolled out like a pie crust, cut into triangles, fried in hot oil until they puff up and brown a little......good with honey, some people stuff beans in them, very good stuff!
Carly

[yellowdogintexas]

51. the one good thing at Pancho's Buffet: sopapillas, or as my

daughter called them at age 5 when first introduced to them:

" SofaPillows"

[fudge stripe cookays]

62. Raise the flag, baby!!

:9

That warm and puffy dough, covered in honey.....aaaaaaagh I'm getting hungry!

My friend coined a verb years ago: To Panch. I panch, you panch, he she we panch....

[yellowdogintexas]

69. love that little flag! Too bad you just can't go there and get the

sopapillas. Although their green chile stew is also pretty good.

[Evoman]

78. I'm from Argentina.

And we make something called a Sopapilla....its got most of the ingredients you mention, with the exception that we use squash in it as well. They are FUGGIN DELICIOUS.

[Orangepeel]

70. There's nothing in it.

They're kind of like big, light beignets.

[Xipe Totec]

75. Hence the name

which is a mutation of "sofa pillows"

[bridgit]

28. we use it in quite a few recipes...

Mex included :9

[shanti]

29. cilantro is GOOOD!

salsa is nothing without it. some say it tastes like soap, but it's an acquired taste, imo. it can be overdone tho.

[nini]

30. there are many different styles of Mexican food

Most of them use cilantro just like Italian food uses oregano, some Chinese foods are spicy and some not, etc..

Go to taco bell if you don't like real Mexican food. The real stuff uses cilantro.

[Lex]

34. Yep. I agree. There is not just 1 style of "Mexican food"

and that is a good thing!

[Taverner]

31. It`s not in Tex Mex

Cilantro is an herb favored by the indigenous groups - and found its way in more mainstream mex over the years.

[BikeWriter]

33. It is in my Tex-Mex. I put it there. :-)

[dorkulon]

40. It's always been in guacamole,

and that's not a new thing. Maybe there's more than one kind of "Mexican" food, just like Italian or Chinese

[judaspriestess]

46. I'm a born and raised Tex-Mex from San Antonio

who ate Mexican food just about everyday. Cilantro was never a huge part of our meals. It was always a condiment and we used it if we wanted to. I love cilantro personally but not on everything. :)

sniffle, sniffle, I miss my delicious down home tex-mex food. Brisket taco with guacamole, oh yeah!! The Mexican food out here in Vegas is just nasty.

[NNadir]

50. Cheese was not part of the Mexican food I ate 600 years ago.

The Spanish had yet to arrive and bring their damn cows with them.

Those were the days.

[SharonRB]

52. Cilantro is at the top of my list of hated foods

I absolutely DESPISE it and can't eat anything that has even a hint of it. Blech!

[S n o w b a l l]

56. Wow..such aversion to cilantro!

Definitely a part of my Mexican food experience living in LA for 15 yrs. How can you have salsa without cilantro?

[LaurenG]

60. Well the first time I tasted it was in Mexico

in the 70's. They used it as a fresh garnish in their taco's at the restaurant I used to go to.

[JCMach1]

61. Cilantro is also used extensively in Pakistani and Indian foods

It's an acquired taste.

When I first began eating it in West Texas, I thought it tasted like soap. YUCK!

Now, I like it.

[Nikia]

65. My husband and I aren't afflicted by that genetic disorder

In which cilantro tastes bad. I remember reading that cilantro tasting bad, which comes from tasting one of the chemicals that not everyone tastes, is most common amongst people of Northern European descent but I don't know whether it is dominate or recessive.
The first time that I had cilantro and knew that I was eating it was at my first job out of college. It was in a Mexican salsa that the company made. My Mexican friend who worked with me said that they had grown it in their garden in Mexico and it was rather tasty. To her, it was always part of Mexican cuisine. She had never eaten fish tacos though nor heard of people eating them in Mexico and thought that some chef in California probably had created the dish.

[ashling]

66. I love Cilantro

Been in the mex recipies I've used in Texas as long as I can remember.

[hunter]

68. Mexico is a big country...

...including the parts that are now in the United States.

Oh hell. The European food I ate in England tastes NOTHING like the food I ate in France.

[SOteric]

71. Dude. Cilantro is fresh coriander.

Coriander both dried and fresh has been a part of Mexican cooking since before the Spaniards came and 'liberated' chocolate.

[Xipe Totec]

74. Not quite, but close

Coriander grows wild in South East Europe and had been cultivated in Egypt, India and China for thousands of years. It is mentioned in Sanskrit text and the Bible.

Spanish conquistadors introduced it to Mexico and Peru where it now commonly paired with chilies in the local cuisine.

It has since become very popular in the Southwest and Western part of the United States as well as in most metropolitan areas.

An interesting note is that people of European descent frequently are reviled by the smell of cilantro. It has not gained in popularity in Europe as it has in many other parts of the world.

Coriander is believed to be named after "koris", the Greek word for "bedbug" as it was said they both emitted a similar odor.



http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/cilantro.htm

PS: I love cilantro. :hi:

[radwriter0555]

79. I can't believe it took more than 70 posts for someone to NOTE that it's coriander...

geez.

People really just don't cook anymore unless it's out of a box, and relate all food experiences to the drive through, LOL!

I love coriander in all forms and use it prolifically.

In fact, I make the best salsa on the french riviera! I can only get the fresh cilantro/coriander from a couple of local providers however, but it makes the dishes top notch.

I use it in my indian cooking as well, of course.

[Bucky]

77. How DARE those Mexicans continue to innovate and expand their culinary palatte! Treachery!!

This has got to be the weakest argument against cultural imperialism ever. The assumption here is that there's just "no way" a real Mexican chef could experiment with other flavors. On the whole, I'll keep my complaints against Nafta as a higher priority.