i used to work at a poke shop and I had one regular that had a special kind of bowl: he wouldn’t get any rice or greens, not even any protein, he would request like 4 or 5 big scoops of cilantro. covered with crunchies like sesame and tempura flakes with sauce. Like this bro just eats cilantro salad every day
The guy transcended the coriander compass.
i always hated weird mex and india foods and recently discovered: no they are not wierdos that like soap
I have the soapy cilantro gene. Cilantro is one of my favorite flavors. No, I don’t generally like the taste of soap. The soapiness of cilantro is very mild for me and is lost in the strong flavor of the herb unless I specifically am looking for it.
The first time I had some salsa in a restaurant I was asking if they accidentally poured dish soap into it. It was inedible for me.
I only learned later that it was cilantro and that it is genetic.
I am still feeling sorry for the remark, but it was all I could taste and didn’t know any better.
I worked at a grocery store and the produce department got a big load of fresh cilantro in. My eyes watered as I walked into the back room. I thought they had just done a shitty job of cleaning the floors.
Now do one for people with the asparagus smelling and smell producing gene.
I have the powers of the X-Men, for I both produce AND smell, AND cilantro tastes soapy for me!
Are there any other odd genetic traits I may possess and haven’t discovered yet!?
Is one of your testicles larger than the other two? This can indicate ‘big nut syndrome’ which is named after Sir John Bignut.
Do you happen to have hitchhikers thumb?
Nah, I have a thumb straight as an arrow lol.
Uh… yes, I do, does having all three of those mean somethimg?
I love Asparagus, but I definitely can smell it when I pee.
I don’t mind the taste, but I’m extremely sensitive to it. If there is one bit in the dish, all of it tastes like cilantro and nothing else. Is this also part of the soap gene.
I definitely have the soapy gene, but don’t mind the taste. I blame thrills soap gum, I occasionally enjoyed that as a kid. My sister also has the gene and can’t stand the taste.
What is the soapy gene?
A gene has been identified as a likely cause of why some people enjoy the smell and taste of coriander (also known as cilantro) while others have exactly the opposite reaction to the point of repulsion. Depending on ancestry, somewhere between 3% and 21% of the population associate it with unpleasant taste, including a combination of soap and vomit, or say that it is similar to the foul smelling odor emitted by stinkbugs. This is due to the presence of aldehyde chemicals, which are present in soap, various detergents, coriander, several species of stinkbugs and cinnamon.
For anybody here in the future: whatever knockoff Wikipedia OP linked to has died. You can find this quote on the regular Wikipedia page for it, under the clinical significance tab
So, if cilantro tastes to me like the smell of Irish Spring, I have the gene? I definitely still enjoy it, though. Funny enough, I also enjoyed one brand of Sangria that tasted exactly like the smell of the floor cleaner from my last job.
I have one allele of the soapy gene variant at rs2741762, and I really like cilantro and coriander. But I also like any weird or different smells, it appears as if I smell everything a little more strongly, and nothing is truly disgusting for me taste-wise (texture though: can’t stand anything that has a vein-like quality). I have ADHD though, and one emergent behavior from that is pursuing the interesting/novel over the good, smells included.
How do you know this? Do those DNA testing sites tell you this sort of thing?
Yes, I tested through 23andMe and then downloaded my genes. Occasionally I compare them to recent studies with https://codegene.eu, which is how I learned a bit about a cholesterol metabolism gene mutation increasing the probability of Alzheimer’s.
My attitude to privacy is probably more complacent than it should be.
I think I have similar taste to yours, with the exception of durian. I could not with that.
So it’s interesting, I have the soapy gene but have found that I do enjoy it, in modest amounts, in certain foods. It primarily just exists for me as an acquired, slightly off flavor that balances the rest - think like trying coffee for the first time versus later in life.
That said, some food trucks really just give you whole scoops of the stuff and I can exhaust that good will pretty quick when I have a bowl of hot soapy pork broth
Cilantro tastes like soap to me. I like it. I can eat as much of soap flavored plant as I want without shitting out bubbles.
Bazed
I used to hate cilantro because I thought it tasted soapy. Then my kid was telling me about this “gene” one day and I said that I must have it. Then I asked them what they thought cilantro tasted like, and they told me it was onion-y like chives.
We were at a restaurant at the time and I was eating something with cilantro which is why it came up. So I took a bite and tried to see if I could taste what they meant by onion-y. And damned if I couldn’t make out that chive sort of flavor.
Since then, I can’t taste the soapiness, it just tastes good.
So I doubt it is actually a gene of any sort if you can reprogram your brain like I did to get the taste.
So I doubt it is actually a gene of any sort
So because you were able to gaslight yourself into liking it that means genetic science is fake?
FUCK Cilantro. It tastes like someone wiped their ass with a sweaty gym sock. I don’t even get the “soap” taste that many people report, it just tastes awful and even the tiniest amount ruins whatever dish its in.
You forgot the last part of his sentence…? He’s not flouting science. Too many weirdly aggressive redditors here…
Yeah it’s not really soap, but more the idea that this thing you’re eating is definitely not food. Like if you got a wad of grass and doused it in terpentine.
I have a black bean and rice recipe I make a lot and cilantro takes it from a 5-6 in terms of flavor to a 10.
I’m sure it’s tasty as heck for you but I’d be unable to eat it. Anything with coriander, even the seeds, tastes awful to me. I simply can’t eat the stuff.
Fair enough. I don’t like pickles personally.
Yeah, it’s always tasted more like bug spray to me. My friend loves it and says it just tastes “earthy.” But mushrooms taste “earthy” to me and I love them. Cilantro just tastes like big spray!!
It tastes like someone wiped their ass with a sweaty gym sock.
so you’re saying it’s an acquired taste?
Thanks for your anecdote!
For those like me that have no idea what this meme is about I just searched - https://www.liveeatlearn.com/cilantro/ .
It seems there is a difference in america where people call coriander parts different things like cilanto. Never knew that. Knowing american way of the names of some herbs is already a good achievement for me.
I’ve always known people that said they can’t tolerate or really dislike coriander in food, but never have I heard about the phonmenon of it tasting like soap. I don’t think any of those people ever explained the taste as soap, just that they dislike it for no reason, so for me it is just picky people in my mind. But now I learned that it’s some genetics weirdness. Always learning.
I find it similar to parsley . It’s not soapy to me, but I’m not a hardcore fan. I guess I can enjoy though, does that count or you are looking specifically for people who sense it like soap and like it too?
I guess that puts you top-center on the coriander compass.
Yeah that’s what coriander should taste like. To anyone with the gene, it tastes wildly different to parsley.
I don’t taste parsley at all. Love cilantro. No soap flavor. Hate tomatoes. Taste like a juiced corpse. So, I’m convinced parsley and tomatoes have an associated gene.
Hate tomatoes. Taste like a juiced corpse.
There’s a gene for that. It’s like the Coriander gene but more rare.
Really?! I’ve never been able to find anything definitive. Just plenty of articles like this one that basically just say: “Tomatoes are gross. Craaazy right?” with no real explanation:
I’m guessing you are not a fan of Italian food! Never heard about someone comparing parsley and tomatoes like this before.
Oddly enough, if you cook the tomatoes, it completely takes away the bad flavor. That’s puts alot of Italian back on the menu. And parsley is fine - it just tastes like nothing.
I have a similar thing but with celery. I cannot stand celery because to me it smells extremely bad. Like, the worst thing I have ever smelled or will smell bad. If there’s even a tiny bit of celery somewhere, I can smell it. I don’t even know how celery tasted because I can’t get it close enough to my mouth to try.
I saw a video of someone teaching himself to like celery, and coerced my girlfriend to do the same - it works!
You literally just start by nibbling a bit every day and start eating more and more as you can handle it. She loves celery now, to the point where she just eats it raw as snacks.
Whether it’s worth the apparent torture is up to you. To be frank, picky eaters give me second hand embarrassment when out dining, since you can teach yourself to like basically everything. Usually it’s just people who didn’t get much variety as children.
Or don’t, because a crunchy water stick isn’t worth the effort…
It is if you’re trying to lose weight
Sure, but I don’t think forcing the plus sized homies to gaslight their taste buds is necessarily the best path.
I’d personally start with veggies they already like and build from there.
I got plenty of variety as a child, but there are some foods I just can’t stand. I’m not about to force myself to eat them when I have so many other options.
But I’m glad I wouldn’t accidentally end up eating out with you. Someone who cares so much what other people are not eating makes me embarrassed for them.
You sound insufferable.
