Fingerroot

Fingerroot (Boesenbergia rotunda), known in Thailand as krachai and elsewhere as Chinese keys or lesser galangal, is the aromatic rhizome of a small herb in the ginger family whose slender, finger-like tubers hang down in a hand-like cluster from a central knob. Its flavour is unlike its relatives — brighter and more citrusy than ginger or galangal, with a peppery, slightly camphorous, almost medicinal edge — and it is the defining aromatic of Thai jungle curry (kaeng pa) and of fish dishes across Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and southern China.