Plate Lab: Shiso makes the salad

Here's what you get the chef who has everything: a giant box of shiso, the Japanese mint-family herb with a mysterious yet distinctive grassy flavor. That's what Corduroy chef Tom Power's grandparents-in-law give him when he and his wife, Natsu, visit their shiso farm in Japan's Aichi region. On one trip five years ago, Power's mother-in-law, Noriko Onoda, gave them an even longer-lasting gift when she made a salad loaded with the shiso for dinner. "Hers was a little different than the one I now...