Damn you, anise basil!!!!!!

So last night I was super exhausted at the end of the day and forced myself to cook since I had only had a cup of lobster bisque for lunch and nothing else that day.  Monday is chicken night on my menu, so I made a simple sauté of breast meat, and then proceeded to prep & assemble my veggies:  a bag of mixed dried mushrooms, a bag of frozen spinach, grape tomatoes, red onion, and basil.  First I sautéed the onions in the brown crust left from the chicken sauté, then deglazed & cooked down the tomatoes & mushrooms (after softened) & basil.  However, when I was rinsing and slicing the basil I could not understand why it smelled like really strong licorice.  I checked the package…sure enough, America’s Choice Fresh Basil...no other info on package.  I smelled the basil over and over.  Since I have a cold and a lot of head congestion I figured maybe I just had no sense of smell.  Like I when you are sick and everything tastes like mustard.  Like I said I was tired, and famished, and decided to just continue, added the spinach & lemon to the other veggies, plated the both, took my picture, and hoped for the best.  Figured, maybe it will taste good when all is said & done. 

Well, it didn’t.  I had the PERFECT chicken sauté, and I could not taste anything but licorice.  The mixed mushrooms I bought, the tomatoes, the spinach – everything!  It was complete licorice domination.      

I had never heard of basil that tastes like licorice, and assumed that they boxed the wrong herb in the basil container.  So I turned to my trusty friend Google, and asked if basil ever tastes like licorice… Google connected me with a couple of sources about basil and it’s different types.  I am aware of two already, sweet basil (which I use for cooking), and holy basil (which I use for seasonal depression in pill form).  I have also heard of lemon basil, but never had it.  Anyway, it turns out lemon basil, cinnamon basil, and Thai basil, all of which have unique flavor profiles, all share a unique chemical to that is also found the flavor it is name after.  For example, Thai basil, a.k.a. anise basil, tastes like extremely strong licorice because it contains anethol, wich is the exact same chemical that make anise smell like black licorice. 

Anyway, I have never been a real fan of anise, and now probably never will be.  So, buyer beware!  Like a good third date, smell that shit before you put it in your mouth, and trust your instincts.  If it smells wrong, it ain’t right.

At least it looked good J