07/05/05, 08:45 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Indiana
Posts: 3,786
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It looks exactly like ao-shiso (green shiso), which I think tastes better than red shiso (a plant used in some American gardens for its decorative foliage). It's very pungent and distinctive in flavor. I like it dried (leaves or flowers) to a powder, mixed with salt and sprinkled on rice. Or simmered with sugar and green tea leaves and made into a clean tasting sorbet (though my midwestern husband thinks it's vile that way). The classic way to eat it, though, is freshly picked with soy sauce, wasabi, rice, and raw fish. If you go into a sushi restaurant, you might be served sushi decorated with plastic green "grass". That's supposed to be shiso.
I planted it just once and it comes back (self sows) every year on its own in a little patch in my garden. If you don't want it, you should pull it before it sets seeds.
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