Instructions: The Japanese use many aromatic ingredients in their cooking, although few are spices. Those most commonly used are wasabi and sansho, which are exclusive to Japanese cuisine, chilies, mustard, ginger and sesame. All are used with moderation.

The Chinese use some spice mixtures, to flavor meats and poultry and in marinades. The best-known spice blend is five-spice powder, but Chinese supermarkets also stock large bags, labeled mixed spices, which contain cassia, star anise, cardamom, dried ginger, Sichuan pepper, licorice root and cassia buds. This mixture is used in a technique common throughout China called flavor-potting, where meat is steeped in a rich spiced sauce; the sauce permeates the meat and the meat enriches the sauce. The blend has a predominantly woody smell of cassia combined with anise.

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