Vietnamese Food: Cu Ghieng?
Gerry
I bought this at the store, as it was CLEARLY ginger root. I think I
know what ginger root looks like.
Does anybody know what "cu ghieng" means in Vietnamese. It's the
spitting image of ginger! :-)
--
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yetanotherBob
some...@sunny.calif says...
If you think know what ginger looks like, and you CLEARLY think you
bought some ginger, you may ACTUALLY have purchased some ginger. What's
the PROBLEM?
ENJOY. Happy NEW YEAR.
Bob
wwere...@yahoo.com
Well, I don't know. If it looks like ginger and smells like ginger and
tastes like ginger, it might be ginger, but then again it might be a
banana or a coconut. It would be hard to tell without scientific
analysis.
James Silverton
You wrote on Sun, 31 Dec 2006 17:24:53 -0800:
G> I bought this at the store, as it was CLEARLY ginger root.
G> I think I know what ginger root looks like.
G> Does anybody know what "cu ghieng" means in Vietnamese. It's
G> the spitting image of ginger! :-)
I've never come across the name before but, if it is not
actually ginger, it is probably Greater or Lesser Galangal
(Kaempferia rotunda Jacq. or K. galanga L) according to Gernot
Katzer's Spice pages. The plants are related to ginger and taste
similar tho' not identical. I have some and it is labelled
"Dried Rhizome"!
James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland
E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.comcast.not
Gerry
Apparently I wasn't clear:
>> I bought it at a Vietnamese supermarket. Yes, I've googled to no avail.
>>
>> I bought this at the store, as it was CLEARLY ginger root. I think I
>> know what ginger root looks like.
>>
>> Does anybody know what "cu ghieng" means in Vietnamese. It's the
>> spitting image of ginger! :-)
> It means ginger. In Vietnamese.
> If you think know what ginger looks like, and you CLEARLY think you
> bought some ginger, you may ACTUALLY have purchased some ginger.
> What's the PROBLEM?
The problem is that it isn't ginger. It tastes vaguely like a
Christmas tree smells, and has a mild horseradish like burn to it. On
the other hand my wife though it was HOT and spit it out pronto. I
kept trying different parts of it attempting to find some heat, but
could not. And are tastes are not so dissimilar.
In any case it is not wasabi, it is not what is traditionally called
"ginger" in Chinese and American cooking, and it is not straight-ahead
horseradish. It tastes nothing like any of these.
So, no one has any familiarity with it, I assume?
--
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Dan Logcher
> x-no-archive: yes
>
> Gerry wrote:
>
>
>>The problem is that it isn't ginger. It tastes vaguely like a
>>Christmas tree smells, and has a mild horseradish like burn to it. On
>>the other hand my wife though it was HOT and spit it out pronto. I
>>kept trying different parts of it attempting to find some heat, but
>>could not. And are tastes are not so dissimilar.
>>
>>In any case it is not wasabi, it is not what is traditionally called
>>"ginger" in Chinese and American cooking, and it is not straight-ahead
>>horseradish. It tastes nothing like any of these.
>>
>>So, no one has any familiarity with it, I assume?
>>--
>>///---
>
>
> (Southeast Asian galanga). There are other species of galanga, Alpinia
> is the genus. It belongs to the ginger family AFAIK. Used primarily in
> Thai cooking, Vietnamese do use it somewhat, but not as extensively as
> the Thais do. eg. Thai curries.
>
> Try image googling "Alpinia galanga" first. Then you could try web
> google.
I use Laos, Galanga powder, when cooking Nasi Goreng. I doesn't smell
or taste much like ginger or ginger powder.
--
Dan
Gerry
> Sounds like galanga/galangal. The Latin name is Alpinia galanga
> (Southeast Asian galanga). There are other species of galanga, Alpinia
> is the genus. It belongs to the ginger family AFAIK. Used primarily in
> Thai cooking, Vietnamese do use it somewhat, but not as extensively as
> the Thais do. eg. Thai curries.
That's the stuff. Thanks everso to you and James Silverton. My wife
said she thought it might be galanga used for Thai food, but I hadn't
pursued it yet.
This seemed to cinch it as it had a picture as well:
http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Alpi_gal.html
There was no mention, specifically, of "Cu Ghieng", but there's no
reason to think that the supermarket really knew what they were doing
with the labeling.
--
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Julian Vrieslander
"Walter Rhee" <Seafo...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Sounds like galanga/galangal.
Probably true. Looks a lot like ginger, but a bit more complex in
flavor. Often used in southeastern asian cooking.
Trivia: Since galangal seems rare and exotic to westerners, Asian
grocers can charge us exorbitant prices for it. Hence it's nickname:
"cu ghieng" is just the Vietnamese pronunciation of "ka ching!"
;-)
--
Julian Vrieslander
wwere...@yahoo.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galangal
Pictures:
I didn't know about that, and so much for my very bad jokes...
:-O
Gerry - I love those giant Viet and Korean supermarkets in your area!
Gerry
<julianvREMO...@mindspring.com> said:
My wife noted in an Madhur Jaffrey's "World-of-the-East Vegetarian
Cooking" ('81) that only dried incarnations of galanga were available
in the USA then.
It was $4.99 a pound. We got a big ol' clump of it for $1.75.
--
///---
Gerry
No kidding. Recently we've started buying whole fishes there. We have
the whittle it into appropriate sizes and get 5 meals out of a Black
Cod for 6 bucks. At first this was a bit intimidating, but we're
looking at more interesting fish now. God knows they have enough there
to experiment with.
Last week at another new jumbo Vietnamese supermarket I noted many
types of tinned corned beef. Maybe 10 or 12 different kinds. ALL of
them from Brazil. With Vietnamese and English on one side and Arabic
and "Halal" printed on the other. Orange County--a hell of a town!
--
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James Silverton
news:2007010208110011272-somewhere@sunnycalif...
>
> Last week at another new jumbo Vietnamese supermarket I noted
> many types of tinned corned beef. Maybe 10 or 12 different
> kinds. ALL of them from Brazil. With Vietnamese and English
> on one side and Arabic and "Halal" printed on the other.
> Orange County--a hell of a town!
It's interesting that Asian supermarkets around here seem to be
the last hold-outs for a selection of canned corned beef and
"spam".
--
James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland
yetanotherBob
Silverton" <not.jim.silverton.at.comcast.not> says...
>
> It's interesting that Asian supermarkets around here seem to be
> the last hold-outs for a selection of canned corned beef and
> "spam".
>
>
use a lot of the canned meats in everyday cooking. Most of the bigger
Asian markets I've been in (Lotte, Korean Corner, International Market,
etc.) around here also have a sizeable Goya and/or Herdez selection,
along with various other Latino goodies scattered through the store.
Often many Latin folks on the staff, as well.
Bob
Gerry
<not.jim.silverton.at.comcast.not> said:
Curiously they also have quite a list of vegetarian potted quazi-meats
of faux-chicken and faux-beef flavorings, with the prime component
being white beans. I bought a couple just to find out. We'll see.
--
///---
Geoff
Củ with a comma over the "u" is Vietnamese for tuber or root. Ginger is
củ gừng. Not sure what the "ghieng" would be - that's not showing up in
my VN-English dictionary.
masala...@gmail.com
Geoff wrote:
> Củ with a comma over the "u" is Vietnamese for tuber or root. Ginger is
> củ gừng. Not sure what the "ghieng" would be - that's not showing up in
> my VN-English dictionary.
I simply suspect it's a misspelling for "rieng".
"Củ riềng" could then be "galanga root".
--
Gernot
Anharmonic Thermochemistry: http://bthec11.uni-graz.at/~katzer
Everything about Herbs & Spices: http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl
Alles ueber Kraeuter & Gewuerze: http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/germ
Texte ueber Tolkiens Werk: http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/tolkien.html
Gerry
>
> Geoff wrote:
>
>> Củ with a comma over the "u" is Vietnamese for tuber or root. Gin
> ger is
>> củ gừng. Not sure what the "ghieng" would be - that's not
> showing up in
>> my VN-English dictionary.
>
> I simply suspect it's a misspelling for "rieng".
> "Củ riềng" could then be "galanga root".
Albeit not easy to read, it seems the mystery is solved.
--
///---
Geoff
>> ger is
>>> củ gừng. Not sure what the "ghieng" would be - that's not
>> showing up in
>>> my VN-English dictionary.
>>
>> I simply suspect it's a misspelling for "rieng".
>
> Albeit not easy to read, it seems the mystery is solved.
The Vietnamese looks OK in Unicode, so maybe your news reader is set
otherwise.
Anyway, happy to contribute.
Howard Johnson
I've bought fresh galanga (red ginger) at local asian groceries here in
Columbus, Ohio. How do you know if it is greater or lesser galanga?
James Silverton
news:459e8...@newsfeed.slurp.net...
>
> I've bought fresh galanga (red ginger) at local asian
> groceries here in Columbus, Ohio. How do you know if it is
> greater or lesser galanga?
Beats me! You would have to compare it with Gernot's pictures or
find a botanist who knows about South Asian plants!
> James Silverton wrote:
>> Hello, Gerry!
>> You wrote on Sun, 31 Dec 2006 17:24:53 -0800:
>>
>> G> I bought this at the store, as it was CLEARLY ginger root.
>> G> I think I know what ginger root looks like.
>>
>> G> Does anybody know what "cu ghieng" means in Vietnamese.
>> It's
>> G> the spitting image of ginger! :-)
>>
>> I've never come across the name before but, if it is not
>> actually ginger, it is probably Greater or Lesser Galangal
>> (Kaempferia rotunda Jacq. or K. galanga L) according to
>> Gernot Katzer's Spice pages. The plants are related to ginger
>> and taste similar tho' not identical. I have some and it is
>> labelled "Dried Rhizome"!
Good Luck!
Howard Johnson
I've grown regular ginger as an indoor house plant. Is galanga more
tropical?
aem
Walter Rhee wrote:
> x-no-archive: yes
>
> > I use Laos, Galanga powder, when cooking Nasi Goreng. I doesn't smell
> > or taste much like ginger or ginger powder.
>
> from a same group does not mean the taste ishould be similar.
> [snip]
That's not the problem. It's that it is a powder. Powdered ginger is
to fresh ginger as cellulose is to a thriving Ponderosa pine, galanga
powder is sawdust. -aem
James Silverton
You wrote on 5 Jan 2007 17:04:55 -0800:
a> Walter Rhee wrote:
??>> x-no-archive: yes
??>>
??>> Dan Logcher wrote:
??>>> I use Laos, Galanga powder, when cooking Nasi Goreng. I
??>>> doesn't smell or taste much like ginger or ginger powder.
??>>
??>> You are right. Just because it belongs to a certain family
??>> or comes from a same group does not mean the taste ishould
??>> be similar. [snip]
Powdered *ginger* has its uses distinct from freshly grated
ginger root. I've never used fresh galangal but I'll admit the
dried stuff is nothing much. Mind you, the notion of "sell by"
dates tends to be ignored in Thai and Vietnamese stores here,
even if there is a date on the bottle.