California Bay (which you find in growing naturally in norther California) is not the same as regular Bay. The California Bay is about twice as strong as regular Bay. If you are going to cook with it, use half as much.
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Just need to shop in the right store, one with high turnover or specializing in spices.
I use 1-2 leaves in each batch of chili, stew, and some soups, so I go through a small container annually.
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Maybe you should try a California Laurel instead?
Bay Leaves are mostly definitely not a lie.
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My Michael Bay leaves taste explosive!
Or perhaps not. But I don’t have a working olfactory system, so nothing tastes of anything right now.
Aren’t Laurel leaves poisonous?
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Finally, someone’s sticking it to Big Frond.
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Said like a true novice / neophyte foodie.
I am floored floored by how many people are responding seriously to this joke / metaphor for Apple vs. the FBI as if it were someone’s actual opinion on bay leaves.
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ahem… can you give me some map locations?
(i’ve been searching like mad to find free herbs and aromatics)
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I remember another kid making this observation, and how my mom was both upset (because she knew we’d never eat asparagus again without mentioning pungent urine) and amused (because it is funny) when I told her about it.
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This article really shows everything that is wrong with the Internet, and really our society.
ASSERTION.
Well, here’s an easy experiment that will SCIENCE prove that…
NO. ASSERTION AGAIN.
Well, here’s a bunch of experts who do this for a living and know the SCIENCE, and they say…
NO. NO. ASSERTION repeated to prove that I am correct. Those who disagree with me are liars.
But…
NO.
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Here is your map. For California Bay Laurel just take a hike in any ofthe mixed oak woodlands in the areas on this map & look for the distinctive elongated green leaves, pick one & rub it between your fingers. The scent should be very powerfully spicy & tangy. They get huge in some areas & in others are almost shrub like.
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Shorter version:
“Lalalalalalalalalala!!”
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What… what’s going on here? Are we being trolled? Is the author trying to make a metaphor for something? If so, for what thing?
I mean, just to be clear, and for those who might’ve jumped straight to the comments without reading: the author makes the claim that bay leaves are bullshit, goes and asks various culinary professionals who say that, no, Bay Leaves aren’t bullshit, the author more-or-less amusingly calls each of them liars.
This has got to be a metaphor for something or other, right?.. right?
Edit: or am I discovering there exists some other class of population who can’t taste bay leaf, just like there are those who hate, hate cilantro (my dearest SO being, sadly, one of them)?
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Bay leaf is claimed to come from the laurels Laurus nobilis, originating when the nymph Daphne escaped from assault by changing into a tree. And yet the species is also called dioecious – with male and female flowers on different plants – so it is not possible for a single tree to have spread. Given this fundamental inconsistency, it is clear bay leaves must be a lie of some kind; but the leaves they sell under the name taste fine to me.
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touche! 
i swear, some day i will create the urban foragers map. and i have two data science/optical machine learning people signed up to help.
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I…You get that this article is a joke, right?
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