• Ingredients used by people from other cultures are considered exotic.Spoon filled with saffron image by Han van Vonno from Fotolia.com
  
  There are a lot of cooking ingredients which may seem exotic to western cooks. Such ingredients could come from Japanese, Thai, Indian or Moroccan, Greek, or African cooking. So far as they are not commonly used in western cooking, they are considered exotic, even though such ingredients are quite common in the cuisine of the different nationalities.
  
  

Candlenut (Aleurites moluccana)

• The candlenut is a flowering tree which is also known as the Indian walnut, kemiri, kukui nut tree and nuez de la India. It is called a candlenut tree because it produces a seed which can be used to make candles. However, the seed is very oily and is used in the cuisine of Malaysia and Indonesia. In Indonesia, it is known as Kemiri, while it is known as buah keras in Malasia. It is used to prepare a sauce which is used to eat rice and vegetables. In Hawaii, the candlenut is roasted and used as an important ingredient in the preparation of the native Hawaiian poke.
  
  

Wasabi (Wasabia japonica)

• Wasabi can be made into a paste.wasabi meerettich wurzel image by Lucky Dragon from Fotolia.com
  
  Wasabi is also known as Japanese horseradish. The root of this plant is used as a spice. The wasabi root has an extremely pungent flavor, not unlike hot mustard. The wasabi plant grows in Japan, along stream beds. The wasabi can be ground in its raw form and used as a main ingredient in the preparation of sushi or sashimi. The paste has to be used within 15 minutes because after that, it starts to lose its flavor. When fresh wasabi is unavailable, there are other substitutes which come in powdered form or as a paste. Soy sauce and wasabi can be mixed to form a dipping sauce known as wasabi-joyu.
  
  

Myouga (Zingiber mioga)

• Myoga is a major ingredient in Japanese cuisine. It is the edible flower buds and flavorful shoots of the myoga plant, which is native to Japan and the southern part of Korea. The flower buds of the myoga plant are shredded into fine pieces and used as a garnish for some Japanese food like roasted eggplant, sushi and miso soup. In Korea, the myoga flower buds are used to pan-fry meat. Myoga is also used as a raw ingredient tempura and as a spice with cold soba during the summer when it is in season.