Shiso / Perilla
What it is
The leaf of Perilla frutescens, a mint-family annual with broad, serrated, almost heart-shaped leaves, used across Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. Two main culinary forms diverge by region and cultivar: Japanese shiso (var. crispa) — green (aojiso) and red/purple (akajiso) — and Korean perilla / kkaennip (var. frutescens), a larger, flatter, less frilly leaf with a noticeably different aroma. They look related but do not taste interchangeable.
How it's made
A fast-growing warm-season annual, harvested leaf by leaf. Green shiso is sold as fresh leaves; red shiso is grown largely for pickling and coloring. Korean perilla is grown both for leaf and for seed (toasted and ground into deulkkae perilla-seed powder and oil, a major Korean ingredient). The fresh leaf loses much of its aroma when dried; red shiso, however, is preserved by salting with umeboshi.
Flavor profile
Green Japanese shiso is bright and complex — a cool, herbaceous blend reading as mint, basil, cumin, anise, and cinnamon at once, with a faint citrus lift. Red shiso is earthier and more medicinal, with the same cumin-cinnamon backbone. Korean perilla is distinct: less minty, more savory and nutty-anise, slightly grassy, with a sesame-adjacent depth — milder and rounder than shiso. The textures are soft with a faintly fuzzy surface.
Culinary uses
Almost always used fresh and raw — the aroma is volatile. Green shiso wraps and accompanies sashimi and sushi, is fried into tempura, shredded over rice and noodles, and tucked into onigiri. Red shiso colors and flavors umeboshi (pickled plums) and the seasoning yukari, and tints pickled ginger. Korean perilla leaves are eaten as ssam (wraps for grilled meat), pickled or marinated in soy (kkaennip-jangajji), and layered into stews and pancakes; the seed (deulkkae) thickens and flavors soups like perilla-seed kalguksu. Drying ruins the fresh leaf; salt-preservation (red shiso) is the only good non-fresh route. No herb truly substitutes — basil or mint borrow one facet but miss the cumin-anise core; for Korean dishes, nothing replaces kkaennip's specific savor.
Regional variations
Green shiso / aojiso (Japan): garnish and wrap. Red shiso / akajiso (Japan): pickling and coloring. Korean perilla / kkaennip: larger leaf, ssam and banchan, plus a whole seed/oil cuisine. Vietnamese tía tô: a perilla with a purple underside and a stronger, more pungent edge, used in herb plates and with snails and noodle soups. Each tradition selects a different cultivar and aroma profile from the same species.
Cultural & historical context
Native to East and Southeast Asia and cultivated for millennia. In Japan, shiso is inseparable from the aesthetics of washoku — a leaf chosen as much for its form on the plate as its flavor — and red shiso's role in umeboshi ties it to one of the country's oldest preserved foods. In Korea, perilla (both leaf and seed) is a defining flavor of the national table, with no Western analogue. The single English word "perilla" flattening three distinct culinary traditions is itself a lesson in how translation erases nuance.
Reference notes
Suggested slug: `shiso-perilla`. Tags: `herb`, `fresh-leaf`, `mint-family`, `use-raw`, `regional-cultivars`, `seed-and-leaf`. Related ingredients: umeboshi, deulkkae (perilla seed), grilled meat (ssam), sashimi. Related cuisines: Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese. Suggested Cuisinopedia links: Umeboshi, Ssam, Perilla Seed (Deulkkae), Tía Tô. Maintain shiso and kkaennip as separately searchable terms pointing to one parent entry — Korean and Japanese users will search differently and should not be told they're "the same."