All in the family: Ginger's cousin, galangal, makes its way on to U.S. menus

Nation's Restaurant News, Oct 11, 1999 by Bret Thorn

Arun Sampanthavivat, chef-owner of Arun's in Chicago, says galangal can be deep-fried until crispy and added to fish soups for a nice flavor. Even fried, it is not normally eaten, he adds. "It's not so digestible," he says, "unless you grind it up."

Travel writer Joe Cummings, who specializes in Southeast Asia and wrote the Lonely Planet culinary guide to Thailand, says: "Galangal is used a lot in northern Thai cuisine, something I didn't realize until I started living in Chiang Mai [the north's largest city]. I used to think it was mainly a central Thai staple, but I would now consider northern Thailand its 'heartland.' "He notes that the people of Northern Thailand and Northern Laos have a fondness for bitter roots that lends itself to the use of galangal -- which, like ginger, is actually not a root but a rhizome or underground stem.

Southern Thais like bitter roots and rhizomes, too, but instead of galangal they use another of ginger's cousins, turmeric. All three are used to treat stomach ailments, but galangal also was used in medieval Europe as an aphrodisiac.