It has become, without me realizing really, sort of a ritual that I cook Asian on Monday evening. You know: Light, spicy, with lots of vegetable, always trying new twists and additions, with rice, and depending on the mood more inspired by Chinese or by Thai ideas. Also, a very constant pattern: In the house of tauer, usually, we are a bit perfume and perfume business and online shop orders and retailer orders and new scents (s)centric. Allow me a side note to yesterday’s post: As the sun in my little universe circles mostly new perfume planets and from time to time a business comet passes by (yes, I am living in a pre-Copernican world), I have quite a different perspective than, let’s say, most of my perfume loving friends. I guess, in this perspective, a scent like “Eau d’épices” is a thing of the past, and as it is far from the sun right now, it is a bit in the shadow. As the sun shine on NOONTIDE petals these days, I do not worry too much about the eau d’épices in the dark. And hence, the idea of telling the world that Eau d’épices is not available for a some time did not even came near me. Ah well. I hope you get the picture. NOONTIDE petals is the next scent, forseen for Q2 2013. A bright woody floral. More on this later, as this post is actually about something else.

So I cook Asian. Last Monday, I used a lot of Basil, Thai Basil that is spicier, greener with a different twist than the “standard” basil. The W.-factor, thought that I put Anise into the curry. And indeed, Wikipedia, the gold standard of collaborative intelligence, says “Depending on the species and cultivar, the leaves may taste somewhat like anise, with a strong, pungent, often sweet smell.” So there we go. Basil is great in the kitchen as it adds a twist, brings in a green spicy, slightly pungent note. But you must add it right before serving.

In perfumery, it is a head note. But I have never used it so far in a scent. I got an essential oil of Basil the other day, the linalool CHEMOTYPE (ct)  type (click on CHEMOTYPE for an explanation on Wikipedia again: Basically it is differences in metabolites, chemicals, that exist in plants that look completely the same, but have a slightly different genetic make up and hence, for instance, their essential oils are very different). I think the concept of chemotypes is quite intriguing. Maybe there are chemotypes of humans, too?

So I got a basil essential oil, rich in linalool. Think more than 50%. Linalool… you find it for instance in lavender. Or rose wood, or coriander (tons of it there). What do you do with basil? hmmm… I guess it goes well with everything where you need a green, spicy twist, and where you want to support and underline an already existing woody, spicy, green line. For instance in a Fougère. I guess it would do wonders with lavender or vetiver.  To be honest: I did not look into this essential oil in detail so far, but last Monday’s dinner made me think. I guess cooking is a pretty good source for inspiration. Or, maybe, it is just making sure that there is going to be enough sugar available in the upper regions of our bodies.

Today’s picture shows you some of the stuff that went into the curry yesterday.