fucking cilantro is the bane of my existence

[wasabi_poptart]

What is it with restaurants that use cilantro as a garnish? How many times do I have to send my food back and tell them to make it over, this time without the damn cilantro, before they clue into the reality that there are people out there who can't stand the stuff?

I mean, if you insist on using it because parsley isn't fancy enough for you or whatevs, at least give me fair warning and put it on the fucking menu.

Comments

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

i have the same problem with mint, esp. with desserts and sometimes cocktails. "do you really want me to hork up all the lovely food i just ate?"

[wasabi-poptart.livejournal.com]

You know, if they just willy-nilly sprinkled peanuts all over everything, they'd have a lawsuit on their hands! I think the herb lobby needs better lawyers.

[emily-hahn.livejournal.com]

Oh don't even get me started! Stupid Americans who overuse it in Mexican or Tex Mex food without realizing that the real stuff has it sparingly and in tandem with epazote to take the edge of it. Or the people at Whole Foods salad bar who used it in a beet and parsley salad instead of salad. It's not even the taste issue that bothers me as much as the fact that it gives me really awful stomach pains. At least the folks who own the Vietnamese place by my house know to not put it on my bahn mi because I've told them that it makes me sick.

[wasabi-poptart.livejournal.com]

I just say I'm allergic. If I say I don't like it, people go, "oh, you can barely taste it!" (believe me, if it's there I will taste it) or they say "but you'll like it in this dish" or some other nonsense like that. But when you say you're allergic, they will whisk it away and make you a new one and never ask questions (and might even comp you, depending on how afraid they are of lawsuits).

Same goes for walnuts, although any kind of nut is usually given full disclosure.

[emily-hahn.livejournal.com]

I would totally team up with you to form a PAC to support the rights of the Cilantro Intolerant community. We could probably partner with behind I Hate Cilantro. My first target would be the crappy Chinese Chicken Salad entree at Panera, where I got charged $8 for a pile of iceberg lettuce and 3/4 cup (not kidding) of shredded cilantro. How the fuck am I supposed to eat that?

I also tell people flat out that I'm allergic. Even if it doesn't send me into anaphylatic shock, I do get these horrible horrible stomach cramps and pains if it's in my food. A tiny amount I'd be fine, but like I said Americans dump way too much of it into food, so I get sick.

[wasabi-poptart.livejournal.com]

I love these websites! thanks!

[kumquatmay]

soap, it makes everything taste like soap. UGH SO GROSS.

[wasabi-poptart.livejournal.com]

exactly! WE ARE NOT THE ONLY TWO PEOPLE WHO THINK SO EITHER.

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

Lots of people get the soap taste.

[alineskirt.livejournal.com]

YES!!!! It horribly tastes like the worst soap that ever was!!!

[dee-cee.livejournal.com]

It's actually a genetic thing, which I'm sure you know. Cilantro is not a garnish, or even one of those herbs you just tolerate.