Cho Guor

These hard, nutlike ingredients are used in pungent sauces. They look like a nutmeg, though they taste slightly different, and unlike the nutmeg, which is usually grated, the cho guor is used whole. After cooking, the cho guor displays a spongy interior and has a sweetened, medicinal taste. It wrinkles with age, though its taste is affected only slightly. It has no English name and is rarely known by its Mandarin name, cao guo, so in markets you need to ask for cho guor, its Cantonese name. It is sometimes found in packages marked tsao ko, which is a good example of the confusion that occurs in a Chinese market. If you ask most shopkeepers for tsao ko, they wouldn‛t know what you want. But if you ask for cho guor, they will. So, again, I suggest bringing a photocopy of the name in Chinese characters to make sure you get the correct item. Cho guor can be stored indefinitely in a closed jar in a cool, dry place.