I used to like cilantro as a child because of its sweet penetrating aroma. I especially liked to pick and clean cilantro for the New Year's Eve feast so my fingers had the lingering aromatic smell. Not any more. I have now my new passion for basil, or the sweet basil to be exact.
I was first introduced to basil for the well-known Taiwanese cuisine SanBeiJi, a pan-fried chicken with fried basil leaves and sesame oil. The basil smells so good, I started to grow it in our backyard garden. The dish cooked with our organic basil is so tasty, that is when I became addicted to the sweet basil. I bought the basil seeds to grow but didn't succeed. I bought the basil seedlings from the supermarket, but they wilted and died before I got the chance to transplant them. Finally the past spring I bought eight healthy organic (?) basil seedlings from the Worthington Farmers' Market, and it worked out pretty well.
Basil (Ocimum basilicum) is a tender low-growing culinary herb in the mint family, and it is easy to propagate by cuttings. The strong clove scent of sweet basil is derived from eugenol, the same essential oil as actual cloves.
The word Basil comes from the Greek basileus, meaning "king". Many cookery authors consider basil as the "king of herbs".
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