Bay Leaf Spa Rice

I grew up with a eucalyptus tree in the backyard, one of the Bay Area’s legions of blue gum eucalyptus, gnarled, hardy, and nourished by fog. The plant is not native to the state, which is a source of some controversy today; its seeds were tucked into envelopes and carried over the sea by Australian gold-hunters in the mid-nineteenth century. Nevertheless, its scent—cool and clean, with hints of pine, mint, and honey—always says to me: California. In the kitchen, bay leaves are perhaps the