Cumin?

mne01

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Sep 5, 2002
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Hi,

I just came to Santo Domingo for a 3-month stay. I say a recent posting on Indian food and I have a related question. I was wondering if anyone knows what cumin(Cuminum cyminum) is called in Spanish and where I could find it.

And what about fresh coriander (Chinese parsley) - is that a dead end?

Thanks!

mne
 

Ken

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Jan 1, 2002
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Re Cumin

Look for the small bottles labeled Comino or Cominos in the spice section of supermarkets. You'll find it ground (molidos) and seeds (grano). The bottles available in Sosua have a red lid, with either a DANI or CARAMENCITA trademark on the label.
 

Pib

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coriander = cilantro
ingred_coriander.jpg
 

mne01

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Thank you!

So I'll probably find comino. Cilantro fresco, however, I probably won't find in bottles... Any ideas? Do they use it at all? It has a very distint taste and I haven't heard of any cooking outside asia that uses it. I'm not an expert on cooking though. I just like coriander...

mne
 

Ken

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Cilantro is widely used. Always available in the "farmers' markets", don't know about supermarkets. But it is used in the DR
 

Jane J.

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Jan 3, 2002
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Ken, you must mean culantro, otherwise known as recao, available in colmados and supermarkets everywhere. You can substitute coriander / cilantro with recao, as it's from the same family and has the same distinctive taste.

Note: ask for "recao", not "culantro"...culantro will get you some funny looks and blank stares....
 
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MommC

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I buy cilantro fresh all the time.....

In the farmers market in San Pedro, at Iberia in SP and at any supermarket in Santo Domingo.
I've also found it bottled-dried as coriander (cilantro is the fresh-coriander is the seed from the cilantro which is sold dry as seed or ground). Also known as culantro in the DR dialect...
now if only I could find fresh Italian parsley outside of a few supermarkets in SD.....!!!:confused:
 

MommC

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Well I never ask for it......

;) I just pick it up and pay for it!! And I have heard the "other" use of the word. :)
But when I've asked my housekeeper what it is called she does say culantro.......(I'd have never known as cilantro is the botanical name for it!)
 

Jane J.

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I found it here...

You say cilantro, I say culantro? I would never call it culantro, BTW - too racy.

Dunkin Donuts had a new ice coffee out this summer called "Koolata"....like I was ever to going ask for THAT.
 
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MommC

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Pib....perhaps it's just her poor diction to my untrained ear!!

She could be saying cilantro!!!
And I think Jane may have two different spices/herbs mixed up. Recao is not the same as cilantro although it does have a similar flavour. Cilantro (the kind I buy) is what we call Chinese parsley and looks very much like the flat leaf Italian parsley but with a distinctively different flavour. It is also used very much in East Indian and Thai/Vietnamese cooking. It looks exactly as the specimen you posted whereas recao looks very different.
Recao is what I buy when I'm making juandules (otherwise known as pidgeon peas). It's flavour is much stronger than cilantro but has similar tones.
 

m65swede

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Fresh cilantro is not only widely used in the DR, but is absolutely essential in Mexican salsas. There is no excuse for not having an abundant supply; most of the markets even here in Central Illinois, USA stock it.

And it grows nearly everywhere. I plant it in the spring and store it in frozen or dried form. Just let the plants go to seed if you desire coriander.

Swede
 

MommC

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Actually Jane being a herbalist I'm not confused at all!

At least regarding the difference between cilantro, coriander and recao/culantro although I'm sure many were......
I can even tell you what the English name for dragoncello is (now just try finding that in the DR!!- I bring mine -dried-from Canada.)
I use herbs and spices that many have never heard of and not just for cooking!
So hopefully those who missed the humour of your post at least now know there is a difference between cilantro/coriander and recao/culantro and that the stuff that looks like parsley in the markets in the DR but smells and tastes different is really cilantro.
 

J D Sauser

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Cumin is called "comino".
What is offered in Latin America as "comino" is not always the same you would expect when coming from the States or parts of Europe.

Cilantro and Culantro is not the same regionally around Latin American countries. Venezuelans and Colombians even know both, Culantro being much stronger in taste, the leaves much smaller and more intricate in "design" (for the lack of better words to paint a picture, sorry) than the Cilantro used mostly in the DR.

Simila differences can happen when discussing parsley.

So, naming foods and plants in Spanish speaking countries is NOT exact science! The most confusing thing is naming some fish. Even in Spain, some fish see their names SWAPPED acorss the peninsula. The same can happen when trying to ID a fish around Latin American countries or even worse, trying to compare it to a name learned in Europe (eg. Spain).

Yet, everywhere, people will try to lecture you and tell you that "this" one is the only "real" plant, food or animal and that "this" is it's "real" name.


... J-D.