The first night saw us in a gin palace called Ginbo where the bottle lined shelves are illuminated with soft atmospheric lighting and the place is jumping after 11pm. One friend chose an English Garden cocktail which contained gin, ginger beer, lime, rosemary, mint and basil. It was served in a jam jar glass with copious amounts of ice and the flavour and aroma of the basil running through it - delicious apparently!
The next day we lunched at Marc Fosh's restaurant Misa and sat in the cool and airy courtyard. Our dessert was a basil brownie served with curd ice cream and a little green jelly. Well, there was nothing brown about this brownie! Nor anything chocolate to savour at the end of National Chocolate Week which ran 12-18th October (in the UK). This basil brownie was green through and through. Palatable but definitely an acquired taste!
There are many kinds of basil as well as the regular; i.e. purple varieties, opal basil, lemon basil, cinammon basil and clove basil. I often have a pot of basil on the windowsill for culinary use and love the smell of it. I have found that Greek basil, with it's tiny leaves (which saves chopping and tearing) lasts much longer and is more decorative, looking almost like a box ball. Maybe the two uses of basil above will inspire you to use this favourite herb in a more unusual way!
This is now being published back home in Blighty. Sorry for the delay - internet issues!
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