Culantro

Just FYI, if you need this (I’ve been looking for it for ages). There’s a stall in the JianGuo flower market that sells it, plus a whole bunch of other interesting stuff.

Starting from the Jade Market end, walk along the left-hand side until you’re directly underneath the beam (look up!) with ‘8’ painted on it. Walk another ten paces (the width of one or two booths) and look to your left. There’s a stall that sells nothing but herbs. They have an LCD monitor suspended in the entranceway declaring ‘$40/pot or 3 pots for $100’. Can’t remember exactly what it’s called now - some English name, a Japanese ‘的’, and ‘香草’.

Wait… what?

Cilantro is Coriander, which is 香菜, which is available EVERYWHERE for dirt cheap.

香草 is Vanilla.

Culantro is a different herb (I learn by Googling it…) Used in pho and other dishes.

hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proc … 4-506.html

It seems to be 刺芹 CìqíN or 刺芫荽 Cìyánsui* in Mandarin (“spiny celery” or “spiny coriander”).