Although this pretty star-shaped spice has a similar smell and taste to anise and fennel, it has a more distinctive sweet note akin to licorice. It matches well with sweet potatoes or pumpkin as well as with poultry and seafood. Asian cuisines often add star anise to poultry and pork dishes; it is also a key ingredient in five-spice powder. The Vietnamese use the spice in their beef soup, pho. It is an ideal flavoring for roast chicken, and goes well with braised fish, scallops, and in clear soups. 
 
Star Anise is the dried fruit of the Illicium verum, an evergreen tree of the Magnoliaceae family, indigenous to the southeastern part of China and to Vietnam. Its flavor and uses are similar to those of anise. The fruit takes its name from the star like arrangement of its carpels around a central axis. The dried fruit is about 0.1 to 0.2 inch in diameter; individual carpels are usually about 1 cm in length and contain a single seed. Dried carpels are hard, rough, and reddish brown; the seeds are smooth, lustrous, and light brown in color. The dried fruit’s essential-oil content is about 3 percent, and its principal component is anethole.