I was already in college in Texas the first time I remember trying cilantro. I’m fairly certain it was in a pico de gallo cup that accompanied my bean and cheese burrito from Taco Cabana (shout out to TC!) Not familiar with Taco Cabana? Bless your heart. It’s only the best fast food Mexican restaurant chain in all the Lone Star State. If someone told me they went to Texas just to get a Taco Cabana fix, I’d be nodding in both understanding and jealousy.
Anyway, the thing that stands out about my first experiences with cilantro was how much I didn’t like it. It tasted like I had just chewed on the corner of a Ziploc baggie. This continued to happen every time I ate it. A gross, synthetic, plastic flavor would completely overpower the rest of the food, and it seemed to be unavoidable, being in almost every meal I was ever served in Texas. What the heck was with all this dang cilantro?!
Well, friends, like the frog that is unknowingly and incrementally boiled to death, so too was my hatred for cilantro. As in, it began to disappear, only to be systematically replaced by an intense desire to constantly eat cilantro. Weird, huh?
Over the course of one year, I went from not ever tasting cilantro to hating cilantro to then craving cilantro. I began to put it on anything and everything. Even going so far as to heating up rice or beans JUST so I would have a vessel with which to enjoy my cilantro. I had a problem for which no support group existed.
Fast-forward 20 years to today. I still love cilantro like a 5th child (I have 4 real kids) but some new friends have also joined my hate/love crew. Let me introduce the newcomers, jack fruit and papaya. They don’t speak the same love language as cilantro, but their beginnings in my life are similar in that I also hated the flavors of both these beautiful tropical fruits before developing a true love for them.
I first tasted papaya in high school when my dad was stationed in Hawai’i. We had a prolific papaya tree next to the house and the papaya looked like it would be delicious. The flesh is a rich and velvety pinkish /orange salmon color and I WANTED to eat it. When I did, however, the flavor did not match the expectation. It wasn’t as sweet as I thought it would be, actually being quite mild tasting. The worst part of it all was the smell. As soon as you slice it open, you can’t help but smell what I would describe as a hint o’ butt crack. Let’s make the diSTINKtion that I don’t mean a butthole, but really just a butt crack. It’s a bit stinky. “That’s gross, Chosun!” you might be thinking. To which I would reply, yeah, it IS gross. Thus, the nickname I came up with- poopaya.
I first tasted jack fruit when we lived in Minnesota. There was an Asian market (called The Asian Market) we would frequent to stock up on our beloved Korean ingredients. They sold a lot of random and seasonal items near the cash register, one of which happened to be fresh jack fruit during the summer. We bought half of one and made a huge space for it in the refrigerator, just as you would for a defrosting Thanksgiving turkey. Everyone was giddy with excitement to try it, but just like its stinky little buddy, poopaya, jack fruit has a malodorous presence.
If jack fruit was a wine, then I would tell you it has piquant, floral notes of Juicy Fruit gum, and a full-bodied aroma of butt crack. It was immediate and obvious that I never wanted to eat this disgusting combo of Juicy Fruit/butt ever again. Not to mention, it made my lips, tongue, and throat itch like crazy. No, no. I would never ingest that Devil’s food for a second time, I silently told myself. This thought was underscored with each opening of the refrigerator, as I was nearly knocked unconscious by the fetid odor expelling from this garbage can people call jack fruit. To be true, my feelings of hatred were stronger with jack fruit than with papaya, but like a wasp sting and a spider bite, they both super sucked.
So what happened, you might be asking? What changed to make me start LIKING this produce? Friends, my answer is, I don’t know. I really don’t. All I can say is that my life in India has been made a bit sweeter with the addition of these stinky, yet delicious fruits filling both my fridge and my stomach. Have you tried these tropical delights? I love to hear your thoughts!
I had Jack fruit once in Brazil. It was really bad! Hearing you say you had the same first experience with the fruit makes me wonder if I would like it over time. Great post!
It’s definitely worth it to try a few more times, Roland! I love cilantro, papaya, and Jack fruit now. I do have to take an antihistamine before eating jackfruit though, since I still get very itchy. It’s potent!