A hot, air-dried sausage from Hong Kong made from preserved duck livers, finely chopped and mixed with pork, sugar, soya sauce and rice wine. It has the appearance of a small, thin, lumpy salami. Traditionally these are steamed over boiling rice.
Tamarind. A sour-sweet fruit, sometimes known as the Indian date, used as a souring agent. It comes in long, dry brown pods which look almost like dried broad bean pods. Inside is a long, segmented fruit, like a long brown caterpillar. Each segment contains a hard, shiny black seed. As the pods dry the fruit becomes sweeter. A visitor from Mauritius suggested shaking the tamarind and, if you could hear that the fruit had detached and was rattling a little inside the pod, you would find that the fruit was sweet. All you need to do is to remove the pod and then chew the fruit, discarding the seeds. It is also available mashed and formed into a pulpy block or as a juice. In this form it is used like lemon juice.
Ginkgo nuts. The fruit of the mature female ginkgo tree which produces white nuts which have a mild flavour. They can be eaten raw or grilled or deep-fried, turning green when cooked.
Star anise. Chinese anise. A seed from a tree of the magnolia family which has a flavour reminiscent of liquorice. Stronger than aniseed, it is used in the same way.
