October 24th, 2007
#362 - Tymps
I love cilantro. I love the taste, I love the smell, I think it’s awesome. My wife however, can’t stand it. Apparently there is an anti-cilantro gene that some people have that makes it taste like soap or pine needles. It’s sad for me because I don’t get to eat it as much as I would like and I can’t share the joy with Amanda. Anyone else love or hate cilantro?
October 24th, 2007 at 12:06 am
Mmmm…rust. Got sorta of a tangy kick to it.
I wonder if Biff scrapes it off and labels it “paprika.”
October 24th, 2007 at 12:12 am
I love cilantro. I think it is a fabulous flavor. Of my siblings however, I am the only one who feels this way. One of my brothers is indifferent toward it, and my sister and other brother both despise it, although my sister does acknowledge its culinary potential a little.
Interestingly enough, while we’re two groups of half siblings, it’s my sister and I on one side, and my brothers on the other (ie, same dad, two moms). Very strange indeed.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:13 am
I /adore/ cilantro. just the smell of it makes me hungry.
Second post!
October 24th, 2007 at 12:13 am
Looks like Biff forgot the dough part of doughnut.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:18 am
Excuse Biff while he puts nuts in his mouth…
Yeah, Biff’s one dirty bugger.
The Duck Has Spoken.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:22 am
I like cilantro in my Mexican food. It gives it a kick without making it spicy.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:30 am
I can’t get enough cilantro; my mother, however, absolutely abhors it. ‘Tis sad.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:50 am
Cilantro is amazing. ’nuff said. It seems to go well on a lot of things.
When I was a toddler I would always chew on metallic and iron-tasting metal wherever I could find it. Maybe it means that my body wasn’t getting enough iron back then. Who knows.
October 24th, 2007 at 1:14 am
Ugh. You have not known the devil till you try and grow cilantro. I hate the stuff just from that. Fresh cut the smell of the sap and such is so repugnant and it sticks with you for the longest time. 6 hand washings and its hardly weakened.
October 24th, 2007 at 1:15 am
LOVE it. Nuff said.
October 24th, 2007 at 1:53 am
I used to like cilantro, but where I grew up everything was soaked in the stuff, so after about age 16 or so, I just stopped liking it. The smell of it brings back memories of growing up, but the taste is just sorta blah now.
October 24th, 2007 at 2:01 am
I hope Biff is up on his Tetanus shots.
October 24th, 2007 at 2:37 am
HATE Cilantro. Vile stuff and all that.
Great comic as always
October 24th, 2007 at 3:16 am
As I understand it, chewing on ice is a sign of low iron, weirdly enough.
And I can’t say one way or the other on cilantro, not having eaten any to my knowledge.
October 24th, 2007 at 4:14 am
Cilantro is nice with indian food as they use it alot in there cookin.
The addition of seasoning to rust makes all the difference.
and K cilantro is know as Coriander around most of the world except america where they seem to like to rename things and pervert the english langue (being english myself it does annoy me a little).
October 24th, 2007 at 4:21 am
Always knew Biff was a little nuts XD. *gets bricked for bad pun*.
By the way, at the risk of sounding dumb….what the heck is cilantro?
October 24th, 2007 at 4:43 am
I suffer from anemia, so this is a funny to me. I deal with the fact that the stuff I take is dried ferrous sulfate and when I hear “ferrous sulfate”, I think of all of the artificial food-related things I can’t or really shouldn’t eat.
Still, what he’s eating isn’t out of the ordinary on Dirty Jobs.
October 24th, 2007 at 5:00 am
Rust is flavor, rust is digestive age, rust keeps the old pipes clean. That’s what my old man Rusty used to say.
October 24th, 2007 at 5:20 am
Ah, my mom is like that. It doesn’t bother me or my dad at all though.
October 24th, 2007 at 6:02 am
I like cilantro, but i can only have a little at a time.
If you asked rosemary, that would be another thing
October 24th, 2007 at 6:30 am
Huge cilantro fan. However, I enjoy essentially every spice, in the right context. Except Oregano and Basil, because they’ll make everything better.
October 24th, 2007 at 6:33 am
Ooh, sorry, never had cilantro. I like this comic.
October 24th, 2007 at 6:37 am
I have no idea what this “cilantro” thing you speak of is.
hehehe. awesome scentence.
October 24th, 2007 at 6:56 am
Coriander. It’s just the leafybit of coriander. Us Americans adopted that from Mexico and never looked back. Especially me. I love my cilantro. At my favorite restaurant, I ask for extra cilantro. At home, I usually buy a bouquet of it when I make mexican food and/or salsa, and add little doses of cilantro and lime juice to salsa to keep it fresh.
October 24th, 2007 at 6:57 am
Oh. And Thai food. No wonder my soup never comes out right! I keep forgetting that crucial ingredient.
October 24th, 2007 at 7:00 am
I like cilantro, but my wife hates it. To date, this means I can’t cook with: Cilantro, eggs, or milk. She’s a picky eater.
October 24th, 2007 at 7:31 am
I despise cilantro in all forms and all recipes;
my wife and sons love cilantro!
There seem to be a lot of homes divided over this issue.
October 24th, 2007 at 8:02 am
Oh nos, I am allergics to cilantro!
(I can’t believe nobody else said it first…)
October 24th, 2007 at 8:30 am
Biff admits to a strange flavor lust
He likes to have food with an oxide crust
But some people feel
its makes for bad meals
He thinks rust dust disgust is unjust
October 24th, 2007 at 8:32 am
Mmmmm… The leafy, tangy cilantro goodosity!
The rest of my siblings range from ‘adore it’ to ‘eh.’ My wife doesn’t care one way or another, but the kids love it too. Which means I can put in as much as I like. Cilantro and lemon juice are best mates for cooking in my house. Yaaay!
Loads of cilantro and garlic in homemade hummus… with homemade tortilla crisps… Yummmm…
October 24th, 2007 at 8:38 am
love it! makes so many things taste better!
October 24th, 2007 at 8:56 am
I love cilantro! It’s the key ingrediant in ceviche
October 24th, 2007 at 9:19 am
this one is awesome
October 24th, 2007 at 9:19 am
Cilantro’s a tricky thing for me. There’s a sort of aftertaste/spike that I HATE about the stuff on an unhealthy level but the taste itself is good. That spike however seems to go away if you let the Cilantro mellow in something like salsa for a few days and it’s perfectly pleasant for me then.
October 24th, 2007 at 9:23 am
Yum.
October 24th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Cilantro is essential to Mexican food for me & my stepfather. My teenage brother can take it or leave it. My mother HATES it! She claims it tastes like soap & ruins everything for her. Her loss, I say. *L*
Hmm, Coriander. I wonder if she’s aware of that fact. I certainly wasn’t, and I do nearly all the cooking.
October 24th, 2007 at 10:02 am
I put cilantro in my genghis grill bowls all the time…all the other flavors overrun it, it’s mostly just the thought
October 24th, 2007 at 10:34 am
i LOVE cilantro!
i don’t know if they have a trader joes near where you live, but if you don’t, it’s a really awesome natural food store that sells EVERYTHING you hear people talk about on the Food Network…anyway, they have this cilantro yogurt dip that is to die for! it tastes great on crackers!
October 24th, 2007 at 10:46 am
I have the anti-cilantro gene.
October 24th, 2007 at 10:59 am
I agree. It tastes like pine needles. Only not as good.
October 24th, 2007 at 11:11 am
I don’t get the title for this one - Tymps?
October 24th, 2007 at 11:15 am
It’s the same with nuts. The world is against nut lovers, stealing away the culinary joy that would come if people would allow nuts into more foods.
October 24th, 2007 at 11:18 am
Palsh963, any-one who knows me knows that I’m an inveterate opposer of the bastardization of English; however, I couldn’t help but cringe when I read your comment:
-Cilantro comes from the spanish word for coriander, not America.
-Cilantro generally denotes the leaves; coriander, the seeds.
-It is ignorant in the extreme to claim America is more responsible for language bastardization than any other English speaker, Britain in particular. Learn some etymology.
-Don’t make yourself look foolish: if you choose to complain about language issues, don’t EVER use the word ‘alot’, make sure you use the right form of ‘their, get to know your friend the comma, and make sure you don’t spell language as ‘langue’.
October 24th, 2007 at 11:21 am
I love cilantro, I like to rip it up and add it into my instant noodle cups. Mmmm greeen stuff and sodium.
October 24th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Sleepingorange, I love you..
I was about to leave a similar comment.
In any case, cilantro is AMAZING. I’m sure it doesn’t compare to that good old rust flavor, however… (maybe it does XD)
October 24th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
Sleepingorange, well said. I applaud you.
and, having taken a History of the English Language course in college recently, I couldn’t help but giggle at your third comment.
and I dunno. Rust and Cilantro could taste much the same…just cilantro adds the kick to the meal.
October 24th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
all of my familly loves it, including me, but it’s mostly because cilantro is widly used in our country(Portugal) where it’s called Coentros
October 24th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
I’ve probably had cilantro before and never knew it, so I can’t really say whether I like it or hate it. I know we have it with our huge rack of unused/old spices back at home.
Stil Biff proves once again that he got a snake jaw by being able to swallow that thing whole xD
October 24th, 2007 at 3:29 pm
I love the stuff thanks to my mom. Growing up she would cook pinto beans laden with cilantro, generally just washing off the whole bunch of it and tossing itin, stems and all
October 24th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Cilantro is one of the best spices in the world! It can make something as in-edible as a Taco Bell burrito into something with actual flavor! It’s still not very edible, mind you, but it tastes 1000% better. When cilantro is added to real food, though, the results are spectacular.
All my mates, and my girlfriend agree that cilantro is one of the best spices for all dishes from breakfast to dinner.
Also, I love the comic. Just make sure Biff’s not allergic to a tetanus shot (like I am), because nobody likes lock-jaw. Although, I’ve hardly seen Biff open his mouth. Maybe he’s already got lock-jaw.
October 24th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Sure, I like cilantro, but not a whole lot.
And if Biff can eat nuts for iron, I wonder if goes through a routine of eating a wide assortment of things each day for his nutition. Maybe he should just take a vitamin. Or maybe his diet is why he has surived for over 300 comics…
October 24th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
I adore cilantro. If my mother ever gets married, she’s going to have a bouquet of cilantro and purple flowers.
October 24th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
I love cilantro–but garlic is an absolute necessity.
October 24th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
Cilantro FTW
It really makes my Vietnamese Sub that much better!
The rest of my family, however, detest it. I’m pretty sure though, just because my step-dad doesn’t like it, everyone else says they don’t.
October 25th, 2007 at 5:00 am
When I was a wee little lad, somewhere well under the age of five, I accidentially swallowed a 1/2″ hex nut. Apparently I’ve been a bit of a nut ever since.
October 25th, 2007 at 6:18 am
Uhm… O-o what is Cilantro?
October 25th, 2007 at 8:40 am
One of my best friends has that problem. I LOVE cilantro, but to her it makes food taste really soapy. Makes ordering Thai food very challenging…
October 25th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Hurm… Don’t think I’ve ever had Cilantro, but I do like stewed pine-needles (Way to many survival courses at age 6 thanks to an overly cautious mom and living next to the woods) so I might like it even with the gene.
Coins taste really good though. Particularly nickles and dimes.
October 25th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
I’ve never heard of cilantro… Though, as picky as I am, I wouldn’t doubt that I wouldn’t like it. ^^;
October 25th, 2007 at 5:46 pm
Love or hate cilantro? Hah! I’ve never heard of the stuff!
October 26th, 2007 at 2:39 am
Coriander (that’s the proper name for cilantro, by the way) is absolutely delicious, in my opinion. One of my dear friends is a chef, however, and swears that the stuff is death to any meal. Personally, I’ll put it in wherever I can, and justify it by reminding him that in folk medicine, coriander is said to relieve insomnia (which I’ve suffered from since childhood).
October 26th, 2007 at 10:58 am
Sleepingorange, I think I love you.
October 26th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Ok, for all those holier-than-thou “It’s called Coriander” people, the use of the word coriander in food preparation always refers to these seeds rather than to the plant itself. If you’re going to be so up tight about it, then correct people properly. I’m copying this directly from wikipedia.
The leaves are variously referred to as coriander leaves, cilantro (in the United States, from the Spanish name for the plant), dhania (in the Indian subcontinent, and increasingly in Britain). The leaves, and especially the stems, have a very different taste from the seeds, similar to parsley but “juicier” and with citrus-like overtones. Some people instead perceive an unpleasant “soapy” taste and/or a rank smell. This is believed to be a result of an enzyme that changes the way they taste coriander leaves, a genetic trait, but has yet to be fully researched.
October 26th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
For me, I don’t really pay attention to cilantro or anything.
My brother and my mom, however, HATE the stuff. My bro makes a face whenever cilantro is brought up, and my mom’s nose twitches when she smells it.
She can still eat Thai food without gagging, strangely enough.
I still snickered at the vitamin joke. (iron
October 26th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
I love cilantro. Use it in all kinds of things. my girlfriend, any time, she is presented with a dish containing cilantro, complains that it tastes like perfume.
One wonders how she knows.
October 28th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
Ryan: you speak as if Wikipedia is actually a reputable source …. but I recognize a challenge when I see one
According to “Herbs and Spices: A Gourmet’s Guide” by Karen Farrington (Carlton Books, 1999), it’s “coriander”. The word “cilantro” does not occur in the book at all. According to Wayne Gisslen’s “Advanced Professional Cooking” (John Wiley & Sons, 1992), “cilantro” refers only to the leaves, and the plant as a whole is called “coriander”. According to Raush and Lotz’s “Lexicon of Herbs” (Rebo, 2004), it’s “coriander”, with the colloquial names of “bedbug plant”, “bedbug dill” or “cilantro” also being recognized.
Not intending to be a pretentious bitch here, but seriously. I was simply commenting in passing on the usage of the colloquial name, and you’re the one who jumped down my throat about it. You might consider looking things up somewhere other than the Internet before rushing to the soapbox.
October 29th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
WTF is Cilantro??
I know I could JFGI or even read thru the comments, but, I’m not into being intelligent.
October 29th, 2007 at 7:23 pm
Oh wait, don’t answer that, it is coriander.
mmmm Tasty stuff.
I learnt a new word for something I already had a word for.
“Hi Ben, and welcome to the internet” Haha.
I guess this is like my mum not liking olive oil, personally, I can drink the stuff, but she says it has an overwhelming flavour. Freak.
October 29th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
I haven’t read through the comments, so I don’t know if someone has already suggested it, but:
A few members of my family hated cilantro for a while, but we figured out that if it was fresh (i.e. not from Safeway) the soapy flavor wasn’t there. Everyone in my family now loves cilantro.
Hope this helps.
November 17th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
It’s really weird how people’s tastes differ so greatly. I LOVE cilantro, which is great because everyone else in my family does too. I also love rosemary. I really HATE mint. I don’t care for bay leaves, and basil is a little strong for me.
March 1st, 2008 at 8:48 pm
i love cilantro. i make pasta at my house and add in nearly all the spices on the shelf. it tastes pretty good.
May 5th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
One of the few times I’m stopping to comment on a post, just because I have something to comment on (imagine that).
I love the smell and taste of cilantro…in fact, I used to work at Taco Bell, and the fact that they use fresh cut cilantro in their fiesta salsa is why I loved making it so much. The recipe calls for half of a bunch as shipped, and I always wound up using the whole thing. Everyone else hated doing the fiesta salsa because it was more work, but I loved doing it because I would get to chop the cilantro for it. Also, you mix it with your hands (gloves on, of course), and I love working with food with my hands like that.
I’m just weird, right?
May 9th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
a bunch of these people say they chewed on metal stuff for iron. I chewed on pennies.
hmmmmm…
June 6th, 2008 at 7:40 am
What on earth is Cilantro??
June 16th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
I don’t DISlike cilantro, but I won’t go out of my way to eat it.
Also? Never combine cilantro with pineapple. I tried that at a Mongolian BBQ place a couple of years ago and it tasted absolutely vile.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:55 am
Pine nuts and cilantro(coriander leaves, to anyone outside the US) both taste to me a lot like soap smells. I’m told it’s a genetic thing - whether you can taste one particular compound that’s in it determines whether you’ll love or hate the stuff.
June 28th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
My mother loves cilantro and can’t understand why my siblings and I think it literally tastes like dirt.
July 13th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I seriously hate cilantro. The faintest whiff or taste of it makes me gag.
August 12th, 2008 at 2:12 am
Both my mother and brother abhor it. It tastes a bit like plastic to me, but it’s bearable in small quantities. Although, sometimes when I get salad and there’s a big thing of cilantro in there, it’s an explosion of bitterness. Ick.
September 12th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
I happen to love cilantro, but I really get angry when you buy flat leaf parsley instead. I have no idea why my local grocery store still keeps them right next to each other.
November 4th, 2008 at 2:11 am
Cilantro’s great. Then again so are some kinds of pine needles…
November 20th, 2008 at 11:25 am
what’s wrong with the taste of pine needles?