Culinary and Medical Use
The plant is used as a herb in cooking in Indonesia, where it is called kencur, and especially in Javanese and Balinese cuisines. Beras kencur, which combines dried K. galanga powder with rice flour, is a particularly popular jamu herbal drink used to treat rheumatism and abdominal pain. Its leaves are also used in the Malay rice dish, nasi ulam.
Unlike the similar Boesenbergia rotunda (Thai กระชาย krachai), K. galanga is not commonly used in Thai cuisine, but can be bought as a dried rhizome or in powder form at herbal medicine stalls. It is known in Thai as proh horm (เปราะหอม) or waan horm (ว่านหอม). It is also used in Chinese cooking and Chinese medicine, and is sold in Chinese groceries under the name sha jiang (Chinese: 沙姜; pinyin: shajiang), while the plant itself is referred to as shan nai (Chinese: 山柰; pinyin: shannai). Kaempferia galanga has a peppery camphorous taste.
Read more about this topic: Kaempferia Galanga
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