Holy basil

Minced pork fat is the only thing that carries eugenol this hard.

Pounded together raw so both are bruised into the same paste.

Salt-funk anchors a leaf that would otherwise float off the plate.

Fried hard first; sulfur lays the base the leaf lands on.

A crisp-edged fried egg mutes the peppery burn with yolk fat.

Dark meat has enough fat to hold clove notes through a hot wok.

Sweet glutamate gloss gives the bitterness something to sit on.

Same eugenol, different plant. Use one or the other, never both blind.

Tannin and eugenol: the tulsi chai logic, transplanted to the pot.

Bromelain sweetness against a medicinal leaf. Aroma theory says go.