Bay leaves are the dryer sheets of the kitchen.
Yet I keep buying them, because this what humans that cookdo.
They buy bay leaves and put them in things.
What does a bay leaf smell like?
What does a bay leaf look like?
How does a bay leaf behave?
To settle the matterand my soulI bought a whole bunch of bay leaves to sniff and taste.
(And yet we put themin food.
Are you starting to wake up, sheeple?
(I also cooked some plain rice, sans leaf, as a control.)
Lets explore each one, leaf by leaf.
However, when I first took a bite of this batch of rice, I was underwhelmed.
One of these leaves also got cooked into some rice.
I asked my man-friend, hoping that his spice cabinet was as poorly organized as I suspected it was.
Yes, he confirmed, I will bring them over tomorrow.
(Really, who needs flowers?)
They also got the rice treatment.
But I did it anyway.
I did it for you.
I did it for me.
I did it because I had pitched this idea very hard a couple of days prior.
(More like the memory of a bay leaf than an actual bay leaf.)
Honestly though, its malignant appearance discouraged me from eating a ton of it.
Also I didnt want to eat more rice.
(I wanted to eat pretzel chips dipped in sour cream.)
Eating all this rice however, taught me a lot.
Unlike showy cinnamon or that attention-grabbing star anise, bay leaves are all about complementing their surroundings.
Will I continue buying and using them in my stocks and broths?
