Spice Melange: Dill

As the 1 percent milk is evaporating off the scrambled eggs I’m making, I realize the reason that the dill weed swirling around in the egg and milk mixture is so comforting to me, the very newbie cook: It looks like grass. Well-fertilized, mid-of-summer, tumbling through the sprinkler on a 90 degree day grass.

Baby Dill by Briannaorg on Flickr

It reminds me that as much as they are dried and boxed and labeled, herbs are plants, subject to the same photosynthesis and dirt that any other plant would – the oak tree, the poison ivy, and the chemically verdant suburban lawn. The flavor even reminds me a little of ill-conceived attempts to chew on grass as a little kid, except dill is more crisp than Miracle-Gro.

I’ve tried mixing it in with eggs (good, but makes me burp), in pre-made dips – I once finished an entire tub of tzatiki before I could stop myself, and the occasional soup in a restaurant, but I can’t put my finger on what it tastes like by itself.

(any one who gets the reference in the title wins an internet. Please collect in the comments.)