Last week the entire office smelled like sh!t because someone was eating stinky tofu during lunch, I was the only one who complained and HR told me to give stinky tofu a try instead of complaining…
This morning I baked my cinnamon roll in the office’s oven and instantly 5+ people grouped up in the kitchen to ask what the smell was and giving really bad faces. Instantly the HR person came running in and said: “OMG that smell!, how can you eat that?”
What’s up with Taiwanese people’s fear of Cinnamon?
This is an old wives’s tale.
I know, sorry, am related to, plenty of OG Taiwanese who like it just fine.
Those hardcore kaoliang sausages they make down south are LOADED with cinnamon.
Innit in five spice? That fried pork chop you see around is full of five spice normally. I think my first memory of the smell of Taiwan, other than drain smell, is five spice, you smell it everywhere.
I know it is a strong smelling spice but the comparison to Stinky tofu… I told them: “It’s not as bad as stinky tofu!” they said: “stinky tofu doesn’t smell bad!”
btw I love cilantro lol but I know a lot of people who hate it.
This sounds right. Jagermeister (“ingredients include 56 herbs, fruits, roots, and spices”) tastes like cough syrup from when I was a kid, and thus I can’t stand it.
I couldn’t eat papaya for the longest time because it tasted like some medicine I had to take here when I was a child, and I remain averse to artificial cherry flavors to this day because of the liquid Tylenol I was given. Smell and taste form very powerful bonds with memory.
I actually like the taste and smell of Chinese medicine…but I was also never forced to take it when I was a kid.
One more data point: my Taiwanese wife absolutely hates cinnamon. Asks “how can you Westerners eat that?” But all of our children LOVE it and put it on yogurt, peanut butter, and anything cold or sweet. "媽媽我要肉桂粉”
