Herbs and spices are an important component of any meal, since they lend it much of its flavour. They can greatly refine a meal, and they give gourmets an important tool for matching a given dish to their preferred palate.

These are some of my all-time favourites:

Basil: tasty in vegetable soups and cream dishes; with pork, mutton or veal; with aubergine, green beans, peas, kale, sweetcorn, tomatoes; and, of course, on pizza.  It can even be used to accentuate some desserts.

Dill: adds freshness and flavour to soups; good with tomatoes, crudités, cucumber, fish, eel, beef, mutton, stew, cream dishes, eggs and herb butter.  Salmon, lemon and dill... boom, magic!

Sage: I don't know about what people will think about matching this herb with fish but I love adding its dried version to my own mix of seafood seasoning.  Of course it is excellent on pork; popular in bird stuffing/dressing (Christmas); good in bread, also poultry, lamb, soft cheeses, butter, peas, aubergine, carrots, etc.

Thyme: good with potatoes, tomatoes, squash, aubergine, sweet peppers, legumes, lettuce, celery, beef, poultry, game, stew; also good on pizza

Coriander or Cilantro: use on Mexican salsas, Indian curries, Chinese stir-fries ergo, world cuisine.  I never used to like this herb  we call 'wansoy' in the Philippines. In fact, I considered it my least favourite food when I was young.

Other favourites:

Cumin: very versatile and there's no fried chicken without it.

Bay Leaf: think of it as a spice more than an herb for the flavor it imparts.

Tomato Stalk: This​ is not even an ingredient that people know about, let alone use.  It is one of my ablsolute favourite smells in the world and it just gets discarded immediately after removing the tomato fruit from it.  Definitely one of my top secret ingredient.