Basil and Mint

Jaye had this sudden craving for Chicken Basil and asked me to make some for dinner last night. I guess it was easy for me to go to Star of Siam, order a chicken basil, return home, ditch the containers and heat the stuff in a pan (sprinkle around a pepper here and cooking oil there to mimic kitchen mess). I know though it wouldn't work because we've had that dish so many times already, she'd know if I faked it.

I went to Argyle and picked up a bag of basil and a bottle of kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)... and a few cans of corned beef to replenish my hidden stash of corned beef in the cupboard. For dinner, I cooked the chicken basil and added the leaves last. The smell of burning garlic was now replaced by the smell of toothpaste and gum. I smelled the leaf, it had a hint of mint aroma but oh well, the leaves are already in the dish and Jaye's tummy was growling like a bear. At that point, I was having this slow realization that I may have messed up this dish THAT bad.

I served the chicken "basil" and changed the topic to something more stressful so hopefully she won't recognize it.

"Bakit parang iba lasa?"

"BASIL yan." (galit pa kunwari)

"A bakit? Itong dahon ba yung kakaiba? Oo nga no, parang mint!"

(damn, I played the defensive card too early.)

It was a good thing she was hungry because the chicken basil bowl was empty 15 minutes later. So what was it? I did some research and it turns out that I picked up a bag of sweet basil and that it's part of the mint family.

I learned from this experience that (1) mint is like gum, sweet basil is like chewed gum, (2) there's no tricking Jaye, (3) when I'm really, really bored, I shouldn't blog about leaves.

(By the way, if you're really curious, that's basil on the left and that's mint on the right)