What spice is used in fried pork?

[christianpfc]

In February I was eating Thai food with a Thai friend and he had ordered หมูทอด (fried pork). This were slices of pork meat stir-fried to a brown colour and crunchy texture with a spice which looked like grated garlic, but the taste didn't remind me of garlic. My friend didn't like this spice, so he removed it from the meat, whereas I found the spice delicious. So I had him write down the name of the dish. At that time, I knew that หมู means pork and only now I found out that ทอด simply means fried and doesn't say anything about the spice.

The restaurant was a simple one on Soi Sri Bam Pen, about 100m from the Malaysia hotel just before the Budget Hilton Hotel (if I remember correctly). The food was good, my friend insisted on eating there whenever it was open. The quartered cabbage they served was delicious as well (my mother has no idea what kind of cabbage it was, so I have to get her to buy cabbage that looks similar in Germany so I can try).

[lvdkeyes]

My guess is that is was either 5 spice powder of star anise, but I am not sure.