Food Aversions ...

YMMV / JCMMV

sometimes, when people complain about a specific ingredient , whether it’s Limburger, durian, dill, garlic or cilantro, it can look a bit like intolerance, in addition to a personal aversion

I like her list.

A genetic disposition that makes stuff tastes like soap isn’t a personal intolerance or choice, just like genetics related to hair or skin color. Frankly your dismal sounds like a cranky mom….just eat it, it’s your imagination, just pick it out. in any case i’m done.

:::Raising my hand::: Some people can overcome it (@linguafood) but others of us cannot (me). I can tell in an instant when cilantro is in a dish or part of a filling of a sandwich. I’ve actually just opened my mouth the instant I taste it and swipe out the offending food(s) and rinse my mouth out with something other than water to get rid of the taste.

So I’m in very good company with Julia and Lidia.

Once, when I was visiting Singapore, I wanted to try Durian so my daughter and I asked our taxi driver to get us one and then we all sampled it. I didn’t absolutely hate it but I have no desire to try it again. The driver said whenever he had one in his cab (unopened??) Chinese passengers would get in and say what smells so great in here … others would say something stinks in here.

yep, durian is a perfect example for To Each One’s Own/ YMMV / whatever Floats your Boat

Depends on the ingredient and the person.

Also, some people have much more sensitive palates than others (which can be hard to understand for those who don’t): eg I can taste cucumber if it’s touched something else on my plate, even before it came to me – various family members have fished it out of a salad meant for me, but it’s not going to make a difference, once it’s been there, I can taste it even though they can’t, and it’s not “in my head”, it’s in my mouth.

I inherited the sensitive palate from one of them, but my parents still thought they could bluff it out to make me eat things like dill that can be hidden or camouflaged by other herbs .

Took years for them to admit it (even more for my mom to admit than bananas were a core ingredient of the fenugreek pakodas / fritters that were a monsoon staple ) – and no, I didn’t eat any of the things they bluffed about, because I could clearly taste the offending (to me) flavor.

I would also decorate my plate with tiny bits of cilantro that were added to everything as garnish – absolutely hated it as a kid, but it was one of those “you’ll get used to it if you eat it and this is one fuss too much”. I like it now – but I don’t think I “got used to it”, pretty sure the required enzyme kicked in at some point.

I hated cilantro as a teenager. I remember not finishing my bowl of soup at a Thai restaurant. That was my first encounter with cilantro and it did taste like soap to me at the time.

I also did not like the cilantro in Mexican tuna salad in Manzanillo, Mexico, and I did not like cilantro on Pad Thai in my early twenties. Cilantro also showed up in some Chinese dishes , and 30 years ago, the cilantro was a turn off.

I understand having food sensitivities and aversions.

I identify as a Fussy Person.

I outgrew my cilantro aversion. I realise most people won’t outgrow it. Or maybe I became accustomed to the taste. I don’t know.

I still hate Grapefruit and Miracle Whip.

That isn’t possible - if people dislike cilantro from a genetic point that is related to a variant of the OR6A2 gene which doesn’t change during your life.
But olfactory senses and receptors can become less sensitive as one grows older

You are the perfect person to take my cubed avocado quiz!

Sorry, once a scientist, always a scientist

I never said my cilantro dislike was from a genetic issue, just that something changed such that I didn’t dislike it as intensely as I did as a child.

My receptors are just as sensitive now to other dislikes.

I have had alcohol and food reactions that have to do with digestive enzymes come and go and be ameliorated by the addition of digestive enzyme supplements.

it’s possible that some people stop disliking the soapy taste.

I never perceived it as soapy.

That’s always possible but not because genes changed (and that’s what I thought from the original post)

I’m going to use this

It may seem sad to some, but I never tire of old standbys: tomato, cream of mushroom, onion, minestrone, white bean Italian sausage with fennel and tomatoes, Scotch broth, beef barley, curried split pea, roasted red pepper, and, of course, tortilla.

I was agreeing with you. Maybe I was too concise.

I’ve mentioned this before in other threads, but I now avoid anything with pine nuts unless I’ve made it myself. Turns out, I get pine mouth from pine nuts from Korea, Vietnam, Russia or China, whereby everything (and I mean EVERYTHING!) tastes bitter and even worse, metallic - including water. Yet another genetic tasting predisposition…lucky me! It lasted about 4-5 days before it wore off, but it can last up to 2 weeks.

After researching what it was way back when, I’d also read that only Mediterranean-grown pine nuts (Italy, Turkey, Portugal) prevents getting pine mouth - the others are “inferior” (you can tell which is which by their shapes). After a LOT of research on their part, Whole Foods was finally able to tell me that theirs was sourced from Russia/Vietnam. So that was out. Back then, I found a good-sized container at Wegmans, but they discontinued that larger container and now only sell it in tiny jars at a prohibitive price. So I buy Italian pignola from Amazon in small 4 oz bags. Still a LOT, but at least I know I won’t get pine mouth from them.

Shelled European pine nuts are long and thin:

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Whereas Korean/Chinese (et al) pine nuts are fat and stubby, and often more triangular in shape, sometimes with a brown tip:

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So my pesto is now made with pistachios, as the Italian pine nuts I buy online are way too expensive to use in pesto!

Just eat the grapefruit sans Miracle Whip. JK, I Iove grapefruit, but only tolerate Miracle Whip. generally, I’m not fussy.