Star Anise Star anise is the strikingly star-
shaped woody fruit of a tree in the magnolia
family, Illicium verum, a native of South
China and Indochina. Its anise flavor comes
from the same phenolic chemical, anethole,
that flavors the entirely unrelated European
anise (p. 414). The fruit itself, which may
have six to eight chambers, carries more of
the flavor than the seeds, and the unripe fruit
is traditionally chewed as a breath sweetener.
One traditional and important use of star anise
is in Chinese meat dishes simmered in soy
sauce; when onions are included, the result is
the production of sulfur-phenolic aromatics
that intensify the meatiness of the dish.
Tamarind Tamarind is the fibrous, sticky,
aromatic, and intensely sour pulp that
surrounds the seeds in pods of Tamarindus
indica, a tree in the bean family native to
Africa and Madagascar. The pulp can be
extracted by soaking it in water for a few