Confessions of an American Cilantro-Eater
I am a cilantro addict. Hardcore. Chew on the straight stuff. A hopeless case. When I buy cilantro, I wind up having to select two bunches: one for cooking, and one to account for how much I mindlessly munch on during preparations.
There’s a wide gulf between good cilantro and the mostly awful stuff that infests many supermarkets. You can’t always tell by appearance. Hold the herb close to your face and inhale the cilantro. High quality cilantro should smell slightly of sliced green peppers, and a little spicy, too. It will taste that way as well. The bad stuff will smell pleasant enough, but the piquant element will not be very strong, and it will smell mostly of salad greens. These lower quality herbs taste vaguely of Irish Spring soap, in my opinion.The average person needs to buy less of the good stuff than of the poorer tasting selections, because if you sprinkle it on to your food while slightly twisting and crushing the leaves between your fingers, they release a much stronger tastebud-pleasing oil. If you are going to eat it immedietly, it can be chopped for an even stronger taste. And you can use more of the stems, too, since even the stems of good cilantro taste better than the leaves of lower quality stuff. Alas, when good cilantro is unavailable, I still eat whatever I can find. I am shameless in my addiction. Clearly.
Imagine my delight to discover a cilantro-themed candle. Paddywax’s Mango Cilantro candle is an addict’s dream come true. Ooooooh, smell the pretty-pretty cilantro. This note is so true. So… yummy! Frankly, the candle is dangerous for me. It makes me painfully hungry when I am not, and I want to tear the fridge door off the hinges seeking a snacky fix. But ay, is it ever a fantastic aroma.
The cilantro-ey goodness is underpinned solely by the other eponymous note, mango. I’m not a huge mango fan (I like salty things rather than sweet) but this is drool worthy. Rick Bayless, in his cookbook Mexico One Plate at a Time (p. 340), describes his favorite mango as, “slippery, slithery, almost melt-in-your-mouth, with little of the stringiness that plagues certain varieties. […] Imagine mango flavor enriched with ripe, ripe banana, sweet spices and egg yolks (odd as that may sound.)” This is the aroma of the mango he describes eating.
This candle’s almost enough to make me want to make a chunky mango and cilantro salsa, were I a bigger mango fan.
So along with a thumbs up for the Paddywax Mango Cilantro candle, I’m also recommending some summer reading. Pick up any of Rick Bayless’ books, though I’d especially recommend Mexico One Plate at a Time and Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen: Capturing the Vibrant Flavors of a World-Class Cuisine. (Hyperlinks are to Powell’s Books: support independent bookstores, please!) His books read more like can’t-put-it-down non-fiction tales than they do as straight cookbooks. You will walk away from reading them feeling inspired by his passion for Mexican cuisine and culture. It’s downright impossible to not be sparked into creative thought by his words.
The Paddywax Mango Cilantro candle is available at Nooks & Niches, which is where the above photo of it was obtained.
June 21st, 2006 at 1:53 pm
What is your favourite recipe from Bayless’ books?
Signed,
a fellow cilantro addict
June 21st, 2006 at 2:17 pm
He’s got a fun cilantro dressing recipe, which I now forget which book it’s in… shoot. It’s bascially cilantro, a hot pepper (I’m lazy and just use a jalapeno since they’re easy to find), feta cheese (but plain ol’ goat cheese works too if you’ve a salty palate, or really any salty soft white cheese would work I bet), some lime zest, a little bit of good garlic, and olive oil all thrown together in a blender. But I like to add lots and lots of cilantro, so I use a bit of a vegan “mayonaise” or extra-soft silken tofu in the dressing to make up for the added solid.
And then there’s his mango, jicama and cucumber sticks. Except I just make plain ol’ cucumber sticks usually… It’s just cucumber (and jicama and mango if you like) sliced into long strips with with ground chile and salt sprinkled lightly over it, with freshly squeezed juice from lime wedges dripped over them.
Plus, I am incredibly inspired by his bean recipies - I have not used a single one of them, but they’ve totally inspired me to go off and do my own “thing” with them based on meals and suppers I’ve eaten elsewhere.
June 21st, 2006 at 2:42 pm
Cilantro is one of my favorite things…YUM to both the candle and the recipes. I have to get one of those books. Off to Powells.com!
June 21st, 2006 at 3:08 pm
Heh, a fellow addict, then? Powells has some great deals on used copies of all his books (I think I linked to the them instead of the new ones…)
June 21st, 2006 at 5:07 pm
Ah, my father grew tons of cilantro in the backyard when I was growing up, along with chili peppers, scallions, garlic, Vietnamese basil, mint, and who knows what-all else. Vietnamese food generally entails taking enough herbs to constitute a salad and strewing them willy-nilly all over dinner. So much cilantro. I loved it. It went in and on everything. At a few minutes before dinner my mom would send one of us into the backyard to uproot a few cilantro bunches, swish it in water, dry it off, cut off the roots, and present it on a plate so we could grab a few stalks and rip it all over our food. That’s livin’, folks.
June 21st, 2006 at 5:51 pm
Oh wow. That sounds heavenly. That’s not just livin’, that’s fine livin’. A supper smothered in freshly plucked cilantro… drooling now.
What is Vietnamese basil? (I hope that does not sound like a stupid question.) Is is related to Italian basil, or is it like oregano, where all sorts of random plants get labeled “oregano?”
June 21st, 2006 at 9:17 pm
Oh, I should not have read it now, because I am suddenly very hungry! Must try cilantro and feta cheese recipe tomorrow.
I am sure Tania will chime in on the Vietnamese basil topic. I know about tulsi, or Holy basil, named so because it grows around templed in India in profusion. It is used widely in Thai cooking and the flavour is amazing. Very different from sweet Italian basil.
You can read more about it here:
http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/ingredients/basilh.html
June 21st, 2006 at 9:49 pm
MMM, this review and everyone’s comments have been delicious to read.
June 22nd, 2006 at 8:37 am
Wow, I love cilantro & that candle sounds fabulous.
June 22nd, 2006 at 12:37 pm
Yay, another cilantro chewer like me! When we order certain dishes in Chinese restaurants, I get more excited about the sprigs of cilantro garnish than the food itself. I’m not so sure I’d want a cilantro candle, even though this candle sounds yummy.
June 22nd, 2006 at 1:36 pm
Oh V! Thank you - that’s a great link. I’ll have to tool around to see if I can find it at the markets here. And I suddenly realized that in that dressing it originally called for a serrano pepper? I also have a strange curiosity about how it would taste if the pepper were roasted first and then cooled before adding to the mix? Mmmmm. Gotta remember to try that soon.
Cait, I know! I was hungry after writing this, and now with the comments we all seem to be getting a bit peckish.
Robin, it’s a lovely candle, and thankfully not a terribly expensive one.
Iris - oh thank goodness there is someone else who chews on it. My husband thinks I (and my son who is even more fond of it) am nutty when he catches me chomping it down like that in the kitchen. It’s good to know that there’s at least two cilantro-nutjobs in the world ;)
June 22nd, 2006 at 8:02 pm
Wow! Are you sure you’re not part Mediterranean? Plates heaped with cilantro, feta, basil, mint and parsely are part of our summer salads! It tastes so refreshing, and yes it’s quite a drag to eat wimpy cilantro, or to put it in a mango-cilantro salsa-sounds yummy!
-fellow cilantro eater.
I confess I’m a mint (the fresh kind) addict.
June 22nd, 2006 at 8:54 pm
I am in the minority here; I cannot stand cilantro - and pairing it with mango is a crime against fruit, IMHO. I always say if I wanted to eat soap I would just buy a bar of it and chow down… :-)
June 22nd, 2006 at 10:13 pm
Mmmm, now I’m craving salad, too, Sabrina…. Especially pasta salad with basil and olives and feta and… oh me, oh my! Heh, no, there’s not a bit of Mediterranean at all in me. Apparently I come from a place with no borders: the suppertable. Wimpy cilantro is a real heartbreaker, sigh… and after reading the comments I wanted to give in to the craving, but alas, no good cilantro to be found today :( I can’t do mint, sadly - it makes my mouth itch like crazy, and you’ve no idea how funny it looks when you try to itch the inside of your mouth with your teeth. I love it, so I am always jealous of you lucky folks who can eat as much of it as you like!
Flora, heh. It’s okay. Cilantro is such a polarizing plant: folks either seem to be addicts like me, or else they hate it with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns. And honestly, I’m such a tomato fiend, so pairing it with mango seems compartively like a crime to me, too. The best place for cilantro is actually in a delicious pico de gallo…
June 23rd, 2006 at 10:01 pm
Is cilantro an italian name for italian parsley? I’ve never heard of this herb before but the picture looks just like parsley - either parsley or coriander, or maybe celery. I’m intrigued
June 24th, 2006 at 4:14 am
Oh no, cilantro is a seperate plant. It IS related to flat leaf Italian parsely, however. You’re right, it resembles coriander because in the Americas it’s what we call the leafy part of the same herb that is named coriander. Sometimes I’ve seen it referred to as Chinese oregano or Chinese parsley, too. It’s DELICIOUS. In my opinion, it’s best paired with tomato, but it tastes good with all sorts of things.
June 27th, 2006 at 2:15 am
ah, I see. I’m totally with you there on the coriander love (although I prefer the stalks to the leaves). Have you tried it with bean sprouts stir fry? They really complement each other on the flavour and crunch.
June 27th, 2006 at 5:37 pm
Ooh, no, but that’s a great idea. I don’t do bean sprouts too often, just because where I live the selection tends to not always be so great. But I will keep that idea in mind: it sounds delish!