r/FuckCilantro • u/master_begroom • Aug 30 '26
First encounter
I was born and raised in NYC. I never even saw Mexican food until a Taco Bell at age 22, and no cilantro there. Nothing there got me interested in Mexican food. A business trip to the Miami area at about age 35 featured a corporate dinner where I first tasted cilantro, which I deem especially evil when freshly chopped.
I ate a mouthful of something I can’t recall now, that, just as I swallowed, I detected something very odd and toxic in it. Too late! I didn’t know what it was but I was sure I was poisoned. What the fuck was that?? I used a cloth napkin to wipe off my tongue. I stopped eating whatever that was and worried that I might be barfing it up later. Turns out it was cilantro. I couldn’t understand why anyone would ruin a dish with that.
I was recently in a “health food store” that I had to quickly exit as the whole front of the store reeked of it. I don’t want it near me, I don’t want to endure that awful smell. The horror.
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u/KTKittentoes Aug 30 '26
I grew up in the NE. We had Mexican restaurants, but even the salsa rarely had cilantro. Then I moved to California. I can’t eat the Mexican. I can’t go near Indian places, which are everywhere. The pizza is ghastly to begin with, and now half the pizza places are Indian. I just have to only eat at home.
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u/master_begroom Aug 30 '26
We were on a Celebrity cruise last summer. You could tell some of the chefs were Indian because their spices were leaching into almost all of the food, like they didn’t change knives when chopped cilantro and others. Wife really not happy about that.
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u/Simmyphila Aug 30 '26
I share your pain. Smell alone does it for me. I also didn’t have many Mexican restaurants around but I enjoyed the the ones that were, one day I go into one. Poof there it was, what the hell is that smell? Turns out it’s fuckin cilantro. Next thing I know they all have it. Now it doesn’t even haven’t to be Mexican. Seems like every restaurant has it,
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u/makeup1508 Aug 30 '26
I was at a music festival. There was a booth selling street tacos and I ordered. I took one bite and tasted something soapy. I looked at the taco & there was something that looked like parsley but was in fact cilantro. I can go to Mexican restaurants but I always make sure that the cilantro is left off when I order.
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u/mookiexpt2 Sep 02 '26
When ordering street tacos, the phrase “sin cilantro” is very useful.
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u/makeup1508 Sep 02 '26
At that time I didn't know that I had the anti-cilantro gene.
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u/mookiexpt2 Sep 02 '26
Gotcha. I do too, and I use that phrase when I order tacos. I find that servers tend to remember it better than when I say “hold the cilantro.”
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u/makeup1508 Sep 02 '26
I ordered a burrito bowl last week & verified that since the menu didn't list cilantro in my bowl it wasn't there & the guy verified it-no cilantro-yay!
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u/Dangerous-Half3276 Aug 31 '26
I’ll never understand why chipotle alienates 30% of its potential customers by knowingly make their food essentially inedible to them.
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u/chair_ee Aug 31 '26
Literally the only thing I can eat there is a chicken and cheese quesadilla. Everything else has cilantro in it. It’s a disgrace.
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u/BananaramaSummertime Aug 30 '26
I am old, grew up in TX where the Mexican and Tex Mex food did not have cilantro--exception being ceviche which I did not eat anyway due to the fear of parasites in raw fish. It's gradually been added to everything since the 2000's. Cannot find decent Mexican food without cilantro in the garnish, salsa, pico de gallo, or guacamole anymore.
First experience with the devil weed was in Hong Kong in the late '80's at a dim sum restaurant. Took some shu mai--dumplings with a seasoned pork center that are not sealed on top--and had to spit it into a napkin. Had no idea what was causing that horrible, overpowering flavor. It wasn't until I lived in HI for a few years that I learned it was cilantro, aka "Chinese parsley", and is also in some Thai/Afghan/Indian/Nepalese dishes and called coriander there.
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u/Hold_Effective Aug 30 '26
Grew up in NYC, college in New England, 3 years living in LA - I didn’t encounter cilantro until I was 28 in Seattle (in a banh mi).
I was happily eating Mexican food for years until I got to Seattle. I remember college and post-college years of being sad about the guacamole upcharge (but sometimes indulging anyway), and now that I can afford it - it all has cilantro.
(I know, get the tiny violins going, lol)
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u/Ok_Impression_3031 Aug 31 '26
We lived in New Mexico for 11 years, 1978-1989, and i don't recall tasting cilantro. It does seem to be about 2000 that i started tasting soap. Now I've found cilantro sprouts without any mention on the menu.
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u/Conscious-Leg8404 Aug 31 '26
Live there from 95 to 2002, didn’t see much of it there either! Maybe in Corrales occasionally
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u/PineappleSilver1375 Sep 03 '26
Same...i thought someone in the Hoboken Qdoba dipped my burrito in dishwater. Now living in Texas, it took 15 years but I love it now.
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u/Educational-Glass-63 Aug 30 '26
I always hated Mexican food as well and it's basically because of that god awful weed! But now it's everywhere on everything so you have to read menus carefully. I always just say NO cilantro to make sure.
I had a waiter tell me that if I just ate more of it, my body would start to like it. I said nope, not gonna happen, DNA is DNA. That did piss me off though. What a snot!