The tropical herb pandan has been dubbed “the vanilla of Southeast Asia” but that’s doing pandan a disservice. Sure, it can be used like vanilla in cakes and desserts, but the flavor—earthy, sweet, and a touch grassy at once—is capable of much more, including savory uses. Just look to chefs and bartenders around the area for a showcase of this ingredient’s possibilities.

The differences between vanilla and pandan start with their natural sources. Vanilla comes from a bean, but pandan is a grass. Its leaves are long and hard, and look somewhat like leeks. The leaves aren’t eaten raw, but it’s possible to tie the leaves in a knot and cook things in them. Pandan extracts allow for even more creativity. There, the leaves release their complex flavor, along with the natural plant pigment chlorophyll, to make an emerald-green liquid that can be used in any number of ways.

At Birds Eye, the daytime café in Logan Circle’s Doi Moi (1800 14th St. NW), executive chef Johanna Hellrigl employs pandan extract in a lively green pandan waffle ($12), available on weekends. The dish is inspired by her travels through Myanmar, where a dear friend—a former political prisoner turned women’s leadership coordinator—guided her through bustling food markets. Hellrigl’s dough starts with tapioca flour and coconut milk to create a distinct texture compared to the all-purpose flour common in waffle recipes. “The pandan complements the coconut in the waffle and makes it more naturally sweet,” she explains. For drizzling atop the waffle, Hellrigl’s team blends Vermont maple syrup with kaya, a coconut egg custard jam that’s traditional to Southeast Asia. A bite of the waffle tastes like coconut at first, but then offers a whisper of herbal flavor.

For fans of a meatier brunch, Birds Eye serves a pandan take on chicken and waffles ($16) during weekends. “We brine our chicken in buttermilk and in Shark Sriracha,” a Thai sriracha brand with a more liquid texture than typical srirachas, Hellrigl says.

A few blocks east at Zeppelin (1544 9th St. NW), Shaw’s just-opened homage to all things Japan, cocktail guru and co-owner Micah Wilder concocts a frozen pandan libation called the Tiger Milk ($12). “I think my pandan obsession caught on,” Hellrigl laughs—Wilder is her fiancé. Like Hellrigl’s waffle, coconut sets off the cocktail’s flavor, but the drink also gets a kick from turmeric. Okinawan rum, Redemption rye, Senor orange curacao, pineapple, and lime round things out.

Bethesda’s Penang Malaysian Cuisine (4933 Bethesda Ave.) features a savory pandan item on its menu: the Pandan Ayam, a deep-fried marinated chicken wing appetizer wrapped with pandan leaves that can be prepared gluten-free ($9.95). Savory dishes get a welcome aroma boost and a delicate grassy flavor from pandan, explains chef Seng Luangrath of Thip Khao. Cooks can also use it to flavor steamed chicken dishes or noodle soups, she adds. Thip Khao has used pandan with specials in the past, and Luangrath hints that she will be using more pandan at soon-to-open Lao restaurant Hanumanh in Shaw (1604 7th St. NW).

Meanwhile, at the Shaw (1550 7th St. NW Unit A) and Mt. Pleasant (3162 Mount Pleasant St. NW) Beau Thai locations, the mango sticky rice ($5) is steamed in pandan leaves. It’s served with fresh sliced mango and topped with coconut milk for sweetness. This is a good tactic for enhancing the rice’s flavor, explains Hellrigl, who also prepares Doi Moi’s sticky rice ($3) in this way.

Pandan can even help you celebrate the city’s most famous gift: cherry blossoms. At Union Market’s Toli Moli (1309 5th St. NE), chef and co-owner Jocelyn Law-Yone adds pandan to a special cherry blossom edition of her bodega’s signature falooda dessert ($7). The flavoring contributes a layer of complexity to the apple jellies at the bottom of the layered drink. The falooda also contains basil seeds, vanilla ice cream, and blueberry-mint house-made syrup (it’s available until April 14th.)

Pandan has an unforgettable flavor and aroma, Law-Yone says. “Once you are introduced to it, you will recognize it in many dishes from Southeast Asia, and it will make you smile.”