Cumin herb

[Dejah]

I picked up a package of this herb while in the Chinese supermarket. It smells like cumin, but the aroma is so strong when I was cutting it up that I couldn't face using it. It kind of turned my stomach and I LOVE cumin...

Any suggestions? It doesn't match any images of the cumin plant that is grown for cumin seeds.

[nickrey]

My bet is that it's rice paddy herb, which has a cumin like taste but is nothing like cumin, which is quite feathery in appearance. Try checking out Vietnamese cooking sites to see how to use it.

[Dejah]

Thanks, Nickrey. If I had searched more diligently, I would've seen the image for "rice paddy herb". I also saw packages at the store that were labelled "rice paddy herb" and they looked different. Maybe the others were labelled incorrectly.

I see it is used mainly in Vietnamese dishes. Think I'll pass it along to my students from Vietnam. I just can't get the initial aroma and taste past my brain this time to try and cook with it.