Shopping at Hong Phat Vietnamese market

Saturday, I picked up culantro (ngò gai, in Vietnamese).  It's an herb in the same family as cilantro, cumin, and dill.  I also bought lolot (lá lốt, in Vietnamese), a leaf vegetable in the same genus as black pepper.  It has a slight peppery taste.  Its scientific name is Piper lolot.

I've been focusing on the Piper genus after discovering voatsiperifery.   Similar to lolot is hoja santa (Piper auritum), also called Mexican pepperleaf.  It can be bought at any Mexican grocery.  It adds a peppery taste.  I've used it in soups, stews and on meats.   I'll try the same thing with lolot. 

The other spices in the Piper genus I've experimented with are voatsiperifery, long pepper, Ashanti pepper, and cubeb.  I'll write more on these later.

Also in the Piper genus are betel and kava kava, both used mainly as drugs.  I recently picked up some betel leaves at Lily Market in Portland.  Betel is chewed like tobacco.  I can find no reference to betel as a culinary ingredient.  The leaves had a strong peppery taste and smell; I can imagine that it could be used in cooking.