On 2007-01-02 02:04:59 -0800, Julian Vrieslander
said:

In article om,
"Walter Rhee" 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!"

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.
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