Fresh Herbs and Spices

This flower gives a blue color hue for Malaysian cakes.

The kaffir lime, also known as kieffer lime, limau purut or makrut lime is a lime native to Laos, Indonesia, Malaysian, and Thailand, used commonly in Southeast Asian cuisine. The citrus leaf used mostly in Thai cooking, such as Tom Yam. Available fresh or frozen in Asian supermarkets.

Lemongrass is native to India. It is widely used as a herb in Asian cuisine. It has a citrus flavor and can be dried and powdered, or used fresh. Lemongrass is commonly used in teas, soups, and curries. It is also suitable for poultry, fish, and seafood.

Pandanus amaryllifolius is a tropical plant in the screwpine genus which is known commonly as pandan and used widely in Southeast Asian cooking. It is an upright green plant with fan-shaped sprays of long, narrow, bladelike leaves and woody aerial roots. The plant is sterile, flowers only very rarely, and is propagated by cuttings. The plant is rare in the wild but cultivated widely for use as a flavoring in cooking. The leaves are used fresh or wilted, and are commercially available in frozen form in Asian grocery stores in nations where the plant does not grow. They have a nutty, botanical fragrance which enhances the flavor of Indonesian, Singaporean, and Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese foods, especially rice dishes and cakes.

Galangal (galanga, blue ginger) is a rhizome used in most Southeast Asian cooking. It is also known as lam keeon in Cantonese.

The curry tree is a tropical to sub-tropical tree in the family Rutaceae, which is native to India. Often used in curries, the leaves go by the name "curry leaves." They also called "sweet neem leaves." The Tamil name means leaf that is used to make curries.

Candlenuts or buah keras is used as a thickener in some curries.

Persicaria odorata, the Vietnamese coriander, is an herb whose leaves are used in Southeast Asian cooking. Other names include Vietnamese mint, Cambodian mint, or rau răm, or daun kesom or daun laksa in Malaysian and Singapore.

Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant of the ginger family, used in most Southeast Asian cooking. Commonly known as turmeric or kunyit in Malaysian.