Monday, November 4, 2013

Galangal


If your husband calls you at work and asks you to pick up some ginger on your way home, don't get this.  It's called galangal and although it looks like young ginger to you, it's not.

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And even though you wen already get out of your work clothes and had on your t-shirt and baggy shorts, you gonna have to change clothes again and go back out to the market.  Because even though galangal is a close relative of ginger and is a popular ingredient of Southeast Asian cuisine, it's not good enough. 

This, FYI, is ginger.

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19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Now you can make Chicken Tom Yum soup. -lance

Anonymous said...

Wish you lived closer to me! I need galangal ! And have a lot of reg kine ginger.

The real anon;)


Can tell you no cook ;)

jalna said...

I made some soup this morning and thought that I might as well throw some galangal in da soup since we still had um in the 'fridge. Howdahell you sposed to cut um? You need one hacksaw!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Anon, you made me laugh out loud . . . you right . . . I no cook.

Les said...

hahaha so funny. You shoulda asked Kona, it seems he knows which one is the ginger! I never even seen that galangal thingy before...

Les said...

oh wait...haha i didn't realize his nose was in both pics :O geez, no memory and now i'm going blind?!?!

LeighO said...

You gotta love Kona for being so involved in everything

jalna said...

Yay! At least not just me didn't know about galangal, Les.

Sweetie, I tried to get shots without Kona's nose in it, but he seemed intrigued by the smell, and kept sniffing um.

Anonymous said...

Hahahaha!!! Yup, da buggah pretty tough. LOL!!!! -lance

Dd said...

ohhhh myyy...I feel your pain....so so different...plus its tuff tuff .. hard to eat, unless your grind it into a paste in your motar and pestle !!

jalna said...

Like wood, Lance!!

Didi, I was scaid fo cut um. DANGER WILL ROBINSON. DANGER!!!

Erick said...

You learn something everyday. I thought they were the same.

jalna said...

Thank you, Erick.

Anonymous said...

Suggestion, ask wendall to cut it into smaller bits and you can freeze what you don't use. Once they are sliced try smashing It when you cook with it . I've grown galangal and use it for my Thai curries and tom yum soup. If you want you can also plant the nib which has the slip growing from it.

"Anon"

Anonymous said...

Suggestion part 2 ,if wendall is unavailable try wedging it against a hard edge and breaking it into bits. Worse case scenario try driving over it. A hammer would be another good option ! Stay away from sharp objects;)

"Anon"

jalna said...

Ooooh "Anon", good suggestions. And now I'm intrigued about growing um too. But . . . um . . . what part is the "nib"? The part that I'm holding? And do I just bury it in dirt?

Anonymous said...

The nib is where a shoot grow out...I. Don't see one on yours bc it's been cut. Try leaving it in some water and see if it sprouts. Warning being this is a ginger plant, you might want to use a large container,as it needs room to grow!

jalna said...

Thanks . . . I going try.

kawika said...

What did the sign at the store say is was when you bought it? Was it sold as "ginger"?

jalna said...

Neva have sign, Kawika. I wen look and look, but I was looking in the wrong place. The ginger was by the potatoes, and not in the cold section. If I did more cooking and marketing, I probably woulda known that.