Cheap Eats:
Sambar
  (Lentils Cooked with Spice)

Almost no one is neutral about coriander. However, the degree of disparity in opinions is generally greater when people are discussing the leaves, as opposed to the seeds. The two don't even taste like they're related.

The leaves are the heady, pungent greens that are known more commonly in this country as cilantro. They are a prized ingredient in several of the world's great cuisines. I'm crazy about them, but I've seen a lot of folks recoil as if from toxic waste. However, the seeds are a more common and more familiar taste. They are the primary spice in hot dogs.

This disagreement as to the appeal of coriander is not a new one. Even the name speaks of early disparagement—it comes from the Greek koris, which means bedbug. The Greeks maintained that this is what the plant smelled like. I am really delighted to say that I've never had the opportunity to find out if this is true.

Coriander has one of the longest recorded histories of any of the spices. There is evidence that this native of the Mediterranean and Near East has been in use since 5000 BC Its seeds have been found in Bronze Age ruins on Aegean islands and in the tombs of the Pharaohs. (The Egyptians added the seeds to wine because they thought it would heighten the wine's intoxicating powers.) Coriander is mentioned in the Ebers Papyrus and the books of Moses, and was grown in Assyria and Babylon.

The Romans felt that the best coriander came from Egypt. The Romans used it in bread, in stews, and in an early version of bouquet garni. Just about anyone in Rome who wrote about food—Plautus, Varro, Virgil, Apicius—mentioned coriander in some context.

In the Middle Ages, coriander was exported into northern Europe. In the fourteenth century, when there was little else to flavor bland foods, it gained in popularity. For a time it was grown in southern England, making it relatively cheap in an age when most other spices, though becoming available, were costly and well out of range of most people's budgets.

Coriander became popular in Paris in the 17th century, where it was the principal ingredient of Eau do Carnes, a strange brew that could be used either as a liqueur or as a cologne.

Coriander was introduced into Latin America by the Spaniards soon after they bumped into the New World. It was an instant success. Cultivated by the Mexicans, it followed trade routes into what is now the southwestern United States. It is still grown widely by the Zuni Indians, who use its leaves for salads and its seeds to flavor meat.

Sometimes called Chinese parsley, the leaves are used as widely as the seeds, but not always in the same places. While the seeds are ubiquitous in the U.S., for example, the leaves are only becoming more popular as ethnic dining spreads. Coriander leaves are used as herbs or salad greens in China, India, North Africa, Madagascar, Latin America, Spain, Portugal, and Cyprus (where it has grown since antiquity).

Here's a recipe from India that uses both coriander seeds and leaves. Almost nobody does spices like India does. Of course, as the source of many of the world's most popular spices, they've been cooking with many of them longer than just about anyone else, and use them with the kind of abandon that is only possible if the stuff grows in your backyard. Here's a tasty lentil dish that uses just about everything in your spice cabinet.