GALANGAL
Alpinia galanga
From the Arabic khalanjan - mild ginger.
Greater Galangal, a native of Java, is a member of the ginger family.
This plant is commercially viable, and may be found in many tropical
and sub-tropical gardens. This plant has quite beautiful orchid-like
blooms on 3 to 4 foot stems. When the plant is several years old it is
lifted and the roots are sun-dried to a reddish-brown colour.
The root is used for both cooking and medicine. It tastes like a cross
between pepper and ginger, and is used in a wide variety of manners throughout
asia and the middle east - it is ground by the Arabs and used as snuff,
and to flavour wines and beer, and in India in both perfume and curry recipies.
In Thailand it is used as a remedy for stomach ailments. In Europe it was
used, during the middle ages, as an aphrodasiac.
Not to be confused with Alpinia officinarum (Lesser Galangal) which
is a native of China and is much more popular as an herbal remedy.
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