Star anise is a striking spice, both in appearance and taste. In Cantonese, it is called bat gok (eight angles, or corners), although it sometimes has more or fewer than eight points making up the “star”.
Its flavour is similar to that of aniseed, but star anise is much stronger; often, recipes will call for a certain number of star anise points, rather than a whole one, because too much will overwhelm the other ingredients.
Each of the points contains a shiny seed, which I usually discard when using whole pieces of the spice. People may know to avoid biting into a star anise point, but they might overlook the seed and eat it. It is not harmful to consume, but the flavour is extremely strong.
Ground star anise is one of the ingredients in five-spice powder. It is also an essential ingredient in antiviral drug Tamiflu.
The strong, licorice-y flavour of star anise pairs beautifully with meat, especially pork and beef.
