We had just moved to California from Haiti where we had spent 7 years working with the Baptist Haiti Mission. Now I was beginning an Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture at UC Santa Cruz. There were 40 of us apprentices camped on the farm. We stayed in our own personal tents, but otherwise lived communally. It was great to be on a farm where we grew our own organic fruits and vegetables. We took turns preparing meals for the group.
We rotated between 3 locations on the farm: the "Up Garden", which was the original location of Alan Chadwick's garden which started the program; the "down garden", with its large double-dug beds; and "the field", where tractors and larger scale equipment was used.
My first rotation was in the Up Garden. I love salads, and I was excited at the nice, big bowl of greens that was prepared for us one day the first week. But when I bit into the salad, I tasted something that seemed like a pesticide, which surprised me, since this was an organic farm. Later, I asked a fellow apprentice about this, and she told me it might be something called cilantro. I had never heard of this before, so later she pointed some out to me, and I found out this was the culprit.
It turns out that several of us there were not very fond of this evil weed, so we convinced the group that when making certain things like salsa (which we had fairly often), that a certain portion should be free of the weed. The next time we had salsa, I was happy to see a big bowl free from those little green pieces of poison floating around. But when I tasted the salsa, it still had a strong weed flavor. Turns out they used the same utensils, and that was all it took for me to taste it. That night, I was on clean-up detail, and when I was cleaning the counters, whenever the wet rag passed over where they had laid the cilantro that morning, I could tell.
Not long after we finished the apprenticeship, we ended up moving to Bakersfield. We were attending a church and as part of that, we were part of a small group that met weekly for prayer and Bible study. For Christmas, we were doing a gift exchange. We each drew a name, and we also had to list something we liked and something we disliked, to help the gift-giver make a choice.
When we had our Christmas get-together, I found out that Marc had drawn my name. He had found a Christmas ornament made of wires woven into the shape of an apple. It was designed to be filled with some kind of potpourri. He managed to cram it full of a huge amount of cilantro. While I did not appreciate the cilantro, I certainly loved the creativity. We kept the ornament (less cilantro) until we moved to Thailand.
A number of years later, I went on a two-week mission trip to India. I was a bit apprehensive because I heard they use I lot of cilantro in their cuisine. Well, that certainly was the case. Still I forced myself to eat a little bit of everything until the middle of the second week. I couldn't take any more, and for some meals I just ate plain rice.
A couple years after that, we made our first trip to Thailand. I heard that the Thai cuisine has lots of cilantro, and found that also to be true. However, there were usually cilantro free dishes to be had, so I stuck with them.
One day, they brought out a bowl of steaming hot soup with a huge mound of cilantro on top (this is fairly common practice). Since I was at the end of the table, the server put it in front of me. When my nose caught the steamy aroma, I almost threw up into the soup. I quickly pushed back from the table until I recovered.
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| Steamy soup with cilantro on top |
At the time we made that trip to Thailand, we had no idea we would ever go back. But then, a few years later we found ourselves on a team going to Thailand for 10 years. At this point, I thought, I really need to learn to eat cilantro if I am going to live in Thailand. Surely this would be doable. So I determined that I would to just that. I was very intentional, sometimes even munching on sprigs of the stuff. But I could never get used to it. It still tasted just as awful as ever.
Upon arriving in Thailand, I soon learned the Thai name for cilantro (pak chee). I learned which foods normally have it and which ones don't (though there are always exceptions). When I remembered, I would ask them not to put cilantro in the food. Sometimes, if there was cilantro, I would just pick it out. (I can tolerate it a little if it has been cooked, because cooking sometimes drives off some of the aromatics that I am sensitive to.)
The bad part is, with soups, the only vegetables are often cilantro and green onions, which are cut up and mixed together ahead of time and called pak hawm. So if I ask for no cilantro, I get no greens of any kind.
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| Pak Hawn--enough to kill off the Roman Empire |
I figured that if I lived in Thailand long enough, I would eventuall get used to the evil weed. But instead, my sensitivity has become worse. If I am in a poorly ventilated room with lots of fumes, I get nauseous, short of breath and lose my appetite. Still, if I am careful I can manage to get by without making too much of a scene.
Two weeks ago Somdy, our teammate, wanted to take us to this really nice Vietnamese Restaurant in Nong Khai. Since it was a steamy day, we opted to sit in the air-conditioned part of the restaurant. At this restaurant, they bring you out some wraps and raw leaves of various kinds, and the object is to roll them together with some sauce and eat them. We were clear that we did not want cilantro and they obliged.
When they brought out the leaves, I was quite happy at the nice-looking, cilantro free, pile of greens. I did not recognize any of the leaves, but that has never been a deterrent for me. I put together my first wrap and took a bite and...
the reaction was instant,
the reaction was strong,
it was like cilantro, only worse.
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| Vietnamese coriander is the smaller-leaved vegetable on the left side of the plate. |
After I went outside to get some fresh air for a few minutes, I went back and found out what the culprit is. Vietnamese coriander is an English name for this plant. Pak phaew is the Thai name. The scientific name is also very fitting—Persicaria odorata.
I ended up taking some cilantro- and Vietnamese coriander-free spring rolls to the open air part of the restaurant to finish up my lunch while Ingrid and Somdy finished up theirs in the air conditioned section.
Anyway, if we are ever sitting together, sharing a meal, and I quickly excuse myself, don't worry. It is probably not your deodorant or lack thereof. I'm probably just trying to escape some fumes of the evil weed.
So I recommend having fun, because there is nothing better for people in this world than to eat cilantro-free food, drink, and enjoy life. That way they will experience some happiness along with all the hard work God gives them under the sun. Ecclesiastes 8:15 (NLT)
(Bold text mine)
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