Cypriot cuisine and nuts. The best-known spices and herbs include pepper, parsley, arugula, celery, fresh coriander (cilantro), thyme, and oregano. Traditionally, cumin and coriander seeds make up the main cooking aromas of the island. Mint is a very important herb in Cyprus. It grows abundantly, and locals use it for everything, particularly in dishes containing ground meat. For example, the Cypriot version of pastitsio (locally known as "macaronia tou fournou" or "makarna fırında") contains very little tomato and generous amounts of mint. The same is true of "keftedes" or "köfte" (meatballs), which are sometimes laced with mint to provide a contrast with
Parsley from πέτρα ("petra"), "rock, stone", + σέλινον ("selinon"), "celery". Mycenaean Greek se-ri-no, in Linear B, is the earliest attested form of the word "selinon". Garden parsley is a bright green, biennial plant in temperate climates, or an annual herb in subtropical and tropical areas. Where it grows as a biennial, in the first year, it forms a rosette of tripinnate leaves 10–25 cm long with numerous 1–3 cm leaflets, and a taproot used as a food store over the winter. In the second year, it grows a flowering stem to tall with sparser leaves and flat-topped 3–10 cm diameter umbels