I buy fresh ginger at the grocery store, as a big rooty thing.  I chop off
what I need and leave the rest in the freezer.  It keeps for a long time.

Recently, without intentionally doing anything unusual, I seem to have bought
an absolutely wonderful hunk of ginger.  Chopping bits of it into foods added
a magic as wonderful as the magic of garlic.  It was great!  "Aha," I thought,
"I've finally learned to properly appreciate ginger!"

I worked my way through that hunk of ginger the same as any other one.  It
sat in the freezer over the course of months, the same as any other hunk of
ginger.

Eventually, it was all gone and I bought a new hunk of ginger.  Alas, this
one isn't magic.  It tastes like any other hunk of ginger.

So, I'm wondering if anybody out there has advice about buying good ginger
roots.  Was my amazing piece of ginger a fluke?  Or is it something that can
be repeated?  I think I might have bought it at Whole Foods.  Does Whole Foods
know something about ginger that the rest of us don't know?

Thanks....

20 responses total.

I suspect that the difference was in the ginger being organic.

Or, are there multiple varieties of ginger?

Or, Valerie's ginger-to-die-for had been allowed to ripen a
bit more before harvest?

New ginger roots (young, fresh, slightly pinkish skin) may taste better than
older roots.  This is a seasonal change and the one you bought months ago was
probably from the right stage.  There are certain Japanese recipes for pickled
ginger root that specify this young stage.  The skin is extremely thin and
the root is very juicy.  

Out of curiousity, was it spicier then normal?

Hm.  It's not hotter or more biting than other ginger, and maybe even less
so.  But it is more flavorful.

Well, when jars of minced ginger became available four or five
years ago I was thrilled.  Prior to that I didn't make a whole
lot calling for fresh ginger so I always ended up buying hunks
and watching them wilt away, mostly unused.  Too, I used to try
to put it through a garlic press, and that was nasty.

But a few days ago a friend, who is an excellent cook, gave me
a very fast and simple recipe she'd found for a gingered pork
and baby pea stir-fry.  But, she said, you *must* use freshly
grated ginger.  

So today I went to Kitchen Port, bought one of the washboard-type
porcelain ginger graters, a hunk of ginger root from Kroger's, 
and made the dish.  Wow!  What a difference both in taste and
aroma from the bottled stuff.  The recipe is fast and healthy
and I'll mostly certainly be making it again.

So, now I'm newly interested in ginger.  Last night, at
Zanzibar, we shared some ginger sorbet that was wonderful.
I'd like to try a recipe for ginger muffins.  I feel an
obsession coming on. ;-)

<remmers notes that mary is not treading gingerly in this new area>

And here I thought we were talking about pale girls with freckles and bright
orange hair.

I froze a bunch of ginger when we had too much.   I put it in stir fries and
soups.

Resp:9 We are not able to grow our own root vegetables/spices, but I do
know frozen, grated/crushed ginger is great. We love using Dorot frozen ginger,
garlic and basil cubes.

So, no chance of the other kind of ginger (pale girls with freckles and bright
orange hair)? 

Horseradish grows itself if you give it a chance.  So do dill and fennel.
A pot should work for dill.  The others are perennial.

Resp:11 We are hoping to find an apt with a flat roof, so we can garden.
Our balcony has shade all day, all year. 

At least you can sit out in the shade in summer.  Do you have a sunny window?

Not really. All windows on the same side of hte building as the balcony, and
are shaded by the same group of trees.

Is there any open area where you can garden in buckets?  One of our neighbors
filled her rental driveway with 5-gal buckets containing tomato and pepper
plants.  Someone else with pure sand also gardens in buckets.

When we find our new nest, we'll probably start something there. Besides, it's
crossing the freezing point tonight. Michagan, you can keep your cold, shitty
weather. South Texas should be warm and humid and partly sunny. 

It crosses 0F here every night now.  -17F one night, supposed to have hit -10
last night and -14 predicted soon.  A warm spell coming up this weekend with
highs around 20 then cold again.  You can grow lots of things down to about
20F - radishes, carrots, cabbages, mustards, garlic, onions, kale.  Beets dont
survive a cold winter.  Peas and fava beans are cold tolerant.  They sprout
faster indoors.  I don't envy you your summers.

I don't mind the summers; it's a little warm, but lemonade or a craft
beer  from a local/regional microbrewary helps. For eleven months of the
year, you  don't need a heavy coat here. I don't envy you your cold
winters, but I  guess we are made hearty for different circumstances.

Oh, a coworker of mine who grew up in AA is loving this. 

I don't sleep well when it is 75 or above at night.

Different strokes, and all that. I dn't sleep well when it's below about
75. 

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