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By Harold McGee
Published 2004
Water pepper is a relative of rau ram, or Vietnamese coriander. Polygonum hydropiper is a widespread native of wet areas in the Northern Hemisphere. Its leaves have been used as a pepper substitute in Europe, and are now used mainly in Japan to provide a peppery, somewhat numbing pungency (from polygodial). Water pepper also has woody, pine, and eucalyptus notes.
From the book On Food and Cooking (2nd edition) by Harold McGee. © 2004 Harold McGee. By permission of Scribner, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.