I may be wrong, and I don't remember what the label on the bag was, but a few months ago at Thai grocer I picked up a bag of what I thought was holy basil (
Ocimum sanctum). It had slightly purplish leaves
(as pictured here)
(Co)incidentally, about two weeks ago, at a Home Depot, we picked up "Siam Queen basil" (pictured in link above) and "Sweet basil"* (not pictured in link above) plants. In addition to the common names, both were marked Ocimum basilicum.
As far as Thai cooking goes (and I'm barely a dabbler), I think both holy and thai basil would be fine. The link in pdaane's post above does mention about
holy basil, "...it is worth seeking as its unique flavor is heavenly, making it the beloved basil among Thai people. It gives several of the seafood dishes in this book their magical qualities."
*
The leaves look like those of "Genovese basil", which we'd grown two years ago from seeds marked as such. I also notice slight purplish regions in some leaves of the Siam Queen basil (but not as much as in holy basil)
Last edited by
sazerac on July 8th, 2005, 2:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.