There aren’t many ingredients you would associate with exactly one restaurant—helium with Alinea, I guess, and if I were to mention the Mexican herb-slash-weed papalo, Porophyllum ruderale, you might say “Isn’t that the thing they put on the sandwiches at Cemitas Puebla in the summer?” Yes it is, when they can get it at all (more on that in a minute). It’s a flat leaf, about three inches wide (at least that’s how big it is at present in one of my Earthboxes), with a medicinal-herbal flavor that invites not-that-close comparison to basil or cilantro, plus a bit of the mouth-coating effect of coriander, or of taking a big swig of after-shave. I saw some earlier this summer at the Green City Market—a seedling, for growing yourself. Having a tendency to buy things without thinking about their practical use, I grabbed one and planted it.
So it’s not something that’s widely used in Mexican dishes? I asked. “No, no. A little more now, but not all Mexican people know about it. There are only certain states where they know what papalo is,” he explained. “The thing about papalo is, you can’t get it from Mexico. Cilantro you can keep in your fridge for a week, and you’re good, but papalo, if it’s exposed to cold for too long, it turns black,” he said. He talked to a hydroponic farm on the west side about growing it, but it never happened. So he visits his mom’s and cuts some once a week, but typically only has it on hand for about five days before it’s gone.
