Cilantro: Love it or hate it

Doug caught me watching the “Barefoot Contessa” on the Food Network the other day. In one segment, Ina Gartner, the star of the show, was answering questions from her fans. A woman wrote that she absolutely hates cilantro, and wants to know what to use in place of it. Ina’s remark was that she, too, dislikes cilantro, and simply omits it when a recipe calls for it, or uses chopped parsley in it’s place.

Doug and I looked at each other in amazement… there is NO substitute for cilantro, and using parsley, just doesn’t cut it! Sorry Ina.

I feel sorry for people who don’t like – or can’t eat- cilantro, aka Chinese parsley. To me it’s absolutely addictive. The first time I ever ate it was at a Mexican restaurant. I couldn’t stop eating the salsa, but wasn’t sure why. There was an ingredient in the dish I couldn’t identify, yet kept me going back for more. Once I questioned the served about the salsa’s ingredient list, I realized the taste I was craving was the cilantro.

I wrote about cilantro and coriander about a year ago, and provided a recipe for cilantro-tahini dip. If you haven’t tried it, you should; it’s pretty darn tasty, if I do say so myself. If you’re wondering why I’m writing about this topic again, it’s because I just came across an interesting article, “Cilantro:The Controversial Herb”, by Lynda Balslev about this very issue. The article contains several delicious-sounding recipes. Read it and let me know what you think.