[CH] Cilantro and Soap
Ashkenaz, Scott (Scott.Ashkenaz@kla-tencor.com)
Sun, 22 Nov 1998 16:30:28 -0800
As Tony sez, this is not the first time that this has been discussed.
Unfortunately, it is hard to reference the archives, since they are no
longer searchable.
For those who wonder how the other half lives, cilantro to me is the
essence of freshness. Although I do not equate it to rain, I can
appreciate the relationship. The bouquet is a floral-vegetable,
uplifting in exactly the opposite of the way that Italian parsley is
heavy vegetable. (It is interesting to note that as I try to describe
this, the smell that I can resurrect is that of parsley, not cilantro. I
could, of course, just go down to the garden and sample some to avoid
that...) The flavor of cilantro is a fragile background, yet a
simultaneous serif to the main flavors of a dish.
I somewhat question the genetic inevitability. My wife (who some on the
list will remember as the nameless one), started off in the soap
category. Being Austrian, she had never experienced the pleasure of it.
When she first tasted it, she thought that the dish (probably guacamole)
was off, and it took her a few tries to get used to it. Now, however,
she is an evangelist; her crop of cilantro is only exceeded by the field
of basil. When she makes guacamole (to spec!), she even has a tendency
to overuse it - I have to rein it in.
scott@ok, time to go chew on some