I love garlic!
And lots of it. A typical dish at casa az usually contains between half to a whole head of garlic. And I’ve always wondered if I walk around with a cloud of garlic fumes around my head, being offensive to non-garlic eaters. I have now found out that the answer is yes!
Before and during my recent hospital stay I hadn’t eaten anything at all for a week. Then I was put on purées and later on a bland diet. I think it was about half-way through my week-long stint there when I suddenly noticed that almost everyone who came to visit me totally reeked of garlic. And it was so overpowering that I had to ask people to open up the balcony window while they were there. Meanwhile, they had probably just had a tapa or whatever for lunch with far less garlic than I had typically been using.
So the question is … do I now start cutting back on the amount of garlic I eat or do I just start building up my tolerance level again and to hell with the rest of the world?
casa azahar 
build it up again Az 🙂
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Speaking as a fellow lover of garlic, I must agree with our good friend, nursemyra. IMO, there is no such thing as too much garlic. 🙂
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When cooking, I go by the saying:
Garlic should kiss you on the lips and not belt you in the face.
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mmm garlic. build it up, after what you’ve been through, who cares what people think. Enjoy your life…and garlic!
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Fourthed! To hell with the rest of the world.
I am impressed though – half to a whole head per dish!! And I thought I liked garlic.
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roast garlic, with a garlic/olive oil drizzle, served with garlic encrusted bread… Mmmmm… if there were only a reasonable way to work it into a dessert…
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garlic is good for you, so to hell with the rest of the world!!!!
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As a person who considers this place to be one of the finest dining experiences ever
Garlic & Shots
you really don’t need to ask my opinion, do you?
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daisyfae there is a way to work it into desserts. in vietnam I became addicted to a sweet shortbread biscuit that had a filling of garlic paste. the combination of sweet and savoury with the textures of buttery crumble and smooth paste was really delicious
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“I am impressed though – half to a whole head per dish!!”
Well, that’s mostly with stews and sauces, Dan. But it’s true that whenever I see recipes that call for 1-2 cloves of garlic I always wonder “what’s the point?”.
So everyone except ian thinks there is no such thing as too much garlic. Which is the way I always used to think until I became aware of how icky second hand garlic is. And also how long the effects last. Yesterday a friend stopped by in the morning and once again I had to back up to get out of the way of the fumes. So unless this person had had garlicky olive oil on their toast that morning this was clearly the day before’s garlic reek. Bleh.
On the other hand, living in Spain, I don’t think I know anybody who doesn’t eat garlic on a regular basis.
Meanwhile, I didn’t get ‘the reek’ off any of the hospital staff. I wonder if they are instructed not to eat garlic…
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Parsley is the secret.
Really. They leave enormous bunches of the stuff on the tables at Garlic and Shots. Graze on that on and off through your meal (including garlic beer) and no reek.
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Hah! I’ll keep my reek and to damnation with all them lily-livered garlic haters 😉
Garlic is one of nature’s wonder foods, like Marmite, Red Wine and Guinness 😀
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Hi Az
I remember being super sensitive to all tastes/flavors as I recovered. I remember the first time I ate anything was 1 week after the surgery, and it was a cracker. It tasted very,very salty to me, and it was a “weird” flavor. For what it’s worth, the sensitivity went away fast.
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I was planning to do a little herb balcony planter so I’ll try out the parsley thing, Blues.
Marmite? Whaddaya, from Wales or summat?
Yeah, I was also very sensitive to salty food the first week I was at home, Arnie (this is now the second week). Hmmm, maybe I’ll test it again by making some Orville’s…
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Isn’t this why they tell people to eat something with garlic if their date does, in the interest of harmony “later”? 🙂
By all means, build up to your previous level, and grow the parsley for insurance!
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If and when I have to take a bus in the mornings, I have to take what I refer to as “The Garlic and Poo Bus”… mostly because that is what the bus smells like. In the mornings, it is garlic and for the rest of the day, it is poo.
In our area of the ‘burbs, we are on the direct route to Carleton University and a lot of students from China reside in our area. Said students from China eat garlic in the morning… fresh, uncooked garlic cloves and plenty of them, especially in winter. This, needless to say, emanates form their pores and, consequently, the bus takes on a certain je ne sais quoi.
I suppose this is my repayment for when I was in college, had colds constantly, and resorted to swallowing handfuls garlic pills all day, every day. I was “kind” enough to all my scholarly companions to purchase “odourless” garlic pills.
A few years later, my husband told me that I smelled more like garlic on the “supposedly” odourless variety and there was no odour at all when I used the regular stuff. All along, I had been assaulting everyone with said odour, completely obliviously.
Gee… thanks for telling me AT THE TIME!
In regards to the poo smell, Why is it that so many people these days seem completely incapable to showering occasionally?
Having worked retail for many, many… far too… many years, I noticed a very marked deterioration in the personal hygiene of the general public.
By the end of my retail “career”, two out of three customers either had BO or Halitosis… or both.
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