Surely you have eaten Vietnamese PHO or Chinese dishes. There is always a pleasant sweetness in these dishes, which comes mostly from anise. Anise has a distinctly strong manic taste, a mildly sweet but pungent flavor. So Star Anise is used in very small doses and it is usually suitable for savory dishes. Anise is often combined with oranges, tangerines, onions, poultry, beef, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger ... Nowadays, not only Chinese and Vietnamese like anise but even Western dishes also used Star Anise to increase the flavor of the dish.  


(internet)