An Asian plant of the ginger family, the aromatic rhizome of which is widely used in cooking and herbal medicine.
Genera Alpinia and Kaempferia, family Zingiberaceae‘In a food processor, purée the lemongrass, garlic, turmeric, galangal, ginger, candlenuts, onion, chilies, and blachan.’
- ‘A typical paste will contain lots of chiles, garlic, shallots, lemongrass, galangal, shrimp paste, black pepper, and sea salt.’
- ‘Coconut, ginger, galangal, red pepper, sesame, tamarind, peanuts, basil and tea leaves - in addition to staples like homemade noodles and white rice - appear frequently in Myanmar's cuisine.’
- ‘The chicken is marinated with turmeric, ginger, galangal and chili.’
- ‘Ginger and galangal are both rhizomatous plants which grow easily in warm, frost-free areas.’
Middle English galingale, via Old French from Arabic ḵalanjān, perhaps from Chinese gāoliángjiāng, from gāoliáng (the name of a district in Guangdong Province, China) + jiāng ‘ginger’.