Dunno about cilantro but Lipton Ice Tea Lemon (at least here in Germany) tastes like the highly toxic cleaner we used to clean printer stereotypes when I was jobbing at a paper cup manufacturer.
And FuzeTea Lemon tastes like Pustefix soap bubbles.
My username isn’t a portmanteau of accident and death for no reason.
In all seriousness though, the cleaner just smelt like the ice tea tasted. The day I first used the cleaner I actually had Lipton Lemon on my way to work and was caught a bit off guard by the smell.
Edit: FuzeTea definitely tastes like the soap bubbles though. The specific brand even, not just any. Source: I was a child once.
On the subject of other things that taste like soap, oregano also tastes like soap to me. I can't tell if I'm blessed or even more cursed for liking that taste.
Mangoes are picked very green so they can survive transport. Getting one that has ripened fully on the tree is a wholly different experience (those big red yellow and green ones are transcendent)
I'm sorta in the third category. It used to taste like soap. Then I purposefully ate it a handful of times. Something flipped in my perception of it and now I like it. I read the soap thing is genetic, but I think what happened to me is more like the compounds that are shared between smelly feet and cheese where the context defines how the scent is interpreted. I'm very sensitive to some flavors. I've only had pine nuts that didn't taste rancid once in my life and that rancid flavor gets stuck in my mouth for hours. Truffle oil just tastes like mold. But Bleu cheeses taste fine. Taste and its interpretation is complex.
Like you I'm in a third category. For me cilantro isn't soapy, it's just wildly overpowering. If it's in a dish, it's the only thing I will taste that meal. It can be really low in a list of ingredients and still the only thing I taste.
I want to like cilantro, but it's too abusive to the other flavors in and meal for my predisposition.
Genuinely confused. It has a fresh scent/flavor. Would I be upset if soap smelled like it? No?? I mean I think some soaps smell like cilantro, but it's not like taking a bite out of an Irish spring bar... Can't tell if I have the soap gene or not, like what kind of soap is it supposed to taste like?
For me it tastes like drinking water from a cup that was recently washed but not rinsed very well. It’s like a hint of soap, not like biting a bar of soap. It’s unpleasant but not gross to the point of being inedible.
That's definitely what it's like for me. I often have to check the ingredients to make sure I rinsed the dish properly or if it's just cilantro (or oregano, which also tastes like soap to me, and smells strongly like it.)
You'd certainly know if you did. As a kid whose many-times-stupid parent actually washed their mouth out with soap for cursing, I know for a fact that it tastes like soap to me.
I think the fact that your refer to it as having a fresh flavor means you don't have the gene... but idk, im pretty sure i don't have it either and this whole talking about senses over the internet thing is kinda like trying to describe colors to blind people.
Yeah, I didn't know that chocolate and shrimp weren't supposed to burn when I ate them until I was about 21 when it finally clicked. Both of which were foods I enjoyed. 🤷
I actually didn't know I lost that particular genetic lottery until this year so I can say that from an adult perspective: liquid hand soap mixed with rotten leaves
Eating the entire thing is not generally a requirement for something being edible. You can't eat an entire cow, yet cow meat is considered edible (and if you want to say "but you can freeze a cow and eat it bit by bit", consider an adult blue whale - I don't think one human eats that much meat in a lifetime).
You can absolutely eat rocks, most of them aren't even that bad for you if they're somewhat smooth and not too large. Or just grind it down into a powder and bake it into bread, mix it into a milkshake or make a pill out of it. "healing earth" is a thing (helps with digestion) and it's just clay, you're supposed to either take it as a pill or mix it into water.
I like cilantro, but there was one Dr. Oetker's frozen pizza that had cilantro on it that somehow tasted like garbage diapers to me. Idk, maybe someone put actual garbage diapers on it in the factory.
I don't trust frozen pizzas now... still like cilantro though.
Like every other condiment it should be used in quantity and where appropriate
I hate too much of it (that goes for any herb or spice) but it’s totally needed to elevate some dishes, at least in our gastronomy (portugal)
Everything with seafood, even some pork stews.
But just a little
Oh and you can chop the stalks to incorporate at the beginning frying part (refogado we call it, what’s the english word?) then just use some leaves as decoration and olfactory bliss