this post was submitted on 16 May 2026
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Science Memes

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[โ€“] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I'm native, but i also have nephews and nieces that dislike the smell at first but once tasted it are fine with it, so assuming their perspective aligned with people who doesn't grow up with it.

Another example i can give is smelly tofu, i don't grow up with it, never had it, never know how it smell, but when i'm in college i moved to city with people selling it, i hated the smell whenever i went to that particular night market because it smell like sewage, but once i tasted it, it's like a whole new perspective. I now crave it once in a while, and will recognise the smell as something distinct.

On the other end, i actually hate petai/stink bean despite growing up in a family that had it very often back then. I just can't take the smell. So i feels like, unlike cilantro, it's something you have to overcome both the smell and texture, and if you don't like it you don't like it.

[โ€“] gajahmada@awful.systems 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Ooh, nice. It's rare to see another SEA-an around this part.

aligned with people who doesn't grow up with it.

Oh, yeah I agree. What I'm trying to say is that someone with an entirely different set of culture (foods) already has a predetermined set of palate of what kind of taste to expect, so even if they power through the initial smell they just more likely to dislike it cuz it resemble nothing they usually consume.

Another example i can give is smelly tofu

I would take a guess that we're probably neighbours country. I haven't taste smelly tofu in particular, but I can imagine the smell. The by-products of the normal one would make anyone gag, this one probably just straight up has the sewage aroma because of the aging and what not.

petai/stink

The bathroom situation is what makes me hate it. I wouldn't refuse if offered but never choose it myself.

So i feels like, unlike cilantro

Funny, I can't stand cilantro. I don't think I even has the "soapy" taste gene. It just taste like random grass to me and everytime I accidentally taste it I thought "this ain't human food" lol. The brain is fascinating, huh.