Pretty in pink…

I don’t know how many of you have seen this but it was the first time I ever saw one…

Pretty, isn’t it? Well, if you’re an ignoramus like me, that’s the torch ginger flower or what we normally refer to locally as bunga kantan.

As far as I know, it is commonly used in Malay and Thai cooking and one West Malaysian colleague of mine once said that some dishes would never be complete without the bunga kantan. Tak best lah!

However, we seldom used it in our dishes in the past and as a matter of fact, my missus did not like the smell at all. She still doesn’t but does not mind it as much as before.

But what I would see at the market and in some dishes that I’ve eaten before would be the bud and I had never seen it bloom before, not until now.

I hear that if you do not stick it in water and leave it to shrivel up, you will be able to get some very nice dried flowers…but I’ve yet to see those so I can’t tell you exactly how true that is.