Axe/Canicant,
It's really how you define bland I suppose. It's difficult to describe a soup as being bland, as it is a stand alone dish, something that can be enjoyed from start to finish. Whereas a base sauce, is bland in the sense that yeah, a couple of spoonfulls will be pleasent to the taste but, would you eat a bowl full?
As for spicing, no, I don't think you should add anything that's likely to give the base heat. The base needs to be versatile enough to make your soft spice dishes as well as you hard spiced dishes.
As for trying a 'real BIR base' in theory, the home cooks base couldn't compare. The volumes alone make this impossible. Plus, it's also reputed that BIR's put oil back into their base from their cooked dish, again, something that would never be done at home. And finally, the BIR's and TA's keep theirs on a slow simmer all night, meaning that the base is developing all the time. So, there are many reasons why it would be hard to truly replicate or compare the 'home' base, to a BIR one.
As far as ingredients are concerned, carrots, onions, peppers, coriander stalks, and maybe tomato, all seem to be ever present in most bases, aswell as the usual spices. Anything after that, for me, wouldn't alter the taste that significantly unless the volume was substantial.
And as for your previous question Axe, about a base being a stock? I still believe that, that is exactly what it is. It is a vegetable stock, blended, and sometimes watered down, to give a finish dish some bulk and depth of flavour.
Only my opinion, you understand :
Ray
I expected it to just be a picture of his chart.....D'oh 