Kimchi is great stuff. When I was travelling on S Korea it was a staple with every meal and each place we ate at made its own. Jade loves it too, brought back three bags of the stuff, hermetically sealed BTW.

The house reeked of it for weeks, added to which she is partial to durian, a pungent fruit with the whiff of freshly opened drains. That and kimchi in the house even made the cats sleep on the veranda.

There are scams here in China on China eBay, selling star anise oil extract. Some 10 ml bottles have been fetching RMB1000, about $120! According to the blurb on the site it is an active ingredient in Tamiflu. Roche have siad that it is not used raw though but highly processed, so raw star anise oil is no use....Achooooo!