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Many Hong Kong Cuisine restaurants use 香茜 or 芫荽 in soup dishes. Please see the picture below.

  1. Are 香茜 or 芫荽 the same species of plant?

  2. What's the correct English translation? I'm hankering to buy it in the USA. Different Hong Kong waiters translate it differently, and coriander, cilantro, and/or parsley have all been postulated. But aren't coriander, cilantro, parsley different species?

enter image description here

(Source: 鱼翅海鲜灌汤饺.)

Stephie
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  • Vast, as the second photo doesn’t show the herb, just smidges of green, it doesn’t add any value to the post. It was removed from the question for a reason. – Stephie Jul 16 '20 at 15:50

1 Answers1

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Googling 香茜 ("Wu Chinese") and 芫荽 ("Chinese") yields the wikipedia page for coriander in both cases. Coriander is also known as cilantro in parts of the world, which causes some confusion with culantro. Parsley is a different plant.

LSchoon
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    And Wikipedia states that coriander is sometimes called „Chinese parsley”, which also fits the waiters’ statements. – Stephie Jul 15 '20 at 14:17
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    Also, I've met "coriander" for the seeds and "cilantro" for the leaves. – cbeleites unhappy with SX Jul 15 '20 at 14:18
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    @cbeleitesunhappywithSX I have heard coriander for the root and cilantro for the leaves from others. Personally I call the seeds coriander and the leaves the same or cilantro depending on who I am talking to. – bob1 Jul 15 '20 at 20:55
  • Given the OP is asking about the USA, it might be worth explicitly pointing out that in the US, "Cilantro" is the only word you would hear used for the leaves of the plant in most places. – Joe M Jul 15 '20 at 21:23
  • To locate some of these: in the UK, ‘coriander’ is the leaf, and ‘coriander seed’ the seed.  The corresponding terms in the USA are generally ‘cilantro’ for the leaf, and ‘coriander’ for the seed.  (I don't know about other English-speaking areas, but Commonwealth countries often share UK usage.) – gidds Jul 15 '20 at 21:44
  • Australia follows the British rules for coriander; I suspect it's largely an Americas/Not-The-Americas divide for English-speaking countries, predicated on the degree of Spanish influence. – Blargant Jul 15 '20 at 23:23
  • It is summer in US, and you can buy coriander seeds and plant them. They come up fast as tasty cilantro. – Willk Jul 16 '20 at 02:32
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    Additionally, I have also seen parsley referred to as 洋芫茜 - “Western coriander". – mbjb Jul 16 '20 at 03:29
  • Thanks. Please let me keep both pictures, to prove 香茜 and 芫荽 can be used in at least two different dishes. I don't speak Chinese, so it's easier for me to recognize pictures than Chinese characters! –  Jul 16 '20 at 14:47
  • @Vast I hadn't noticed the two pictures served to demonstrate the two different writings, probably because neither of the descriptions contain *exactly* 香茜 or 芫荽. Perhaps you could clarify this in your question, for people who can't infer that 香菜魚片湯 contains 香茜 and 鱼翅海鲜灌汤饺 contains 芫荽 (which is an assumption, as I am one of those people). – LSchoon Jul 16 '20 at 14:58
  • @Vast the other photo doesn’t show the herb clearly, so it doesn’t add visual information. The two different writings are contained both in the question and the answer. – Stephie Jul 16 '20 at 15:52
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    For the various coriander/cilantro terms, see: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/784/translating-cooking-terms-between-us-uk-au-ca-nz – Stephie Jul 16 '20 at 15:56