This morning I read a review in the NYT about a new restaurant in New York named Perilla. The review explained that perilla is another name for the leafy herb I know of as shiso.
In my experience, it's fairly uncommon. In restaurant dining, I have only encountered it in Japanese restaurants, and I've only been able to buy it in Asian stores. An annual that I grow in my garden for sushi and salads, this year I served it at our July 4th party with a smoked salmon carpaccio--not one person here had ever seen it before or knew what to do with it (wrap it around the fish).
I remember looking for recipes involving shiso and finding few. Upon learning this new name, I went looking for more thinking under a new name I might find a lot more. First stop: Epicurious. Well, if that'a a barometer, than perilla's even less successful than shiso: two perilla recipes compared to eight shiso. Both perilla recipes were Vietnamese in origin, most of the shiso recipes were Japanese.
Then I checked out Wikipedia. There I found that shiso is also popular, or at least used, in Korean cuisine. It's even turned into a kimchee.
Too bad its not more widely known. It's in the mint family and has a vaguely apple flavor. And yet it's different, as distinct in its own way as cilantro or parsley. It doesn't taste like anything else and nothing else tastes like it. I've been hypnotized by it since my first taste of it all those years ago.
Any other fans here? If so, how do you use it?