The possibility exists that I actually bought this and planted it last year. But the more likely explanation is that I planted it thinking it was parsley. Or it was mislabeled as parsley. It came up unbidden this spring and I, thinking it was parsley, put a fair amount in some chicken soup I was making.
The soup had a distinctly curry-like flavor (it was goo-ood) but I really had no idea why it tasted like curry. Eventually I went out and tasted the leaves of this plant—for all I know it could be hemlock—and sure enough it, too, tasted distinctly of curry. I had no idea what it was. It did not have celery-like stalks even if the leaves were vaguely reminiscent of celery. Nor were the stalks like parsley even if the leaves were less than vaguely reminiscent of parsley.
It was surprisingly hard to find on the google. But eventually after image-searching “plant tastes like curry,” “looks like celery tastes like curry,” “curry flavored plant,” “what the fuck is this???” I did find a picture of it (only one) and it turns out to be lovage. Or as the Germans like to complicate it, “Maggikraut.” Apparently called this because the flavor resembles Maggi bouillon cubes. I wonder what they called it before bouillon was invented.
And for the record it does not taste like Maggi bouillon cubes. It tastes like curry.
