Garlico suave
A garlic tasting brings out foodie libidos
Jessica Steinhoff
Dirty, slutty garlic cloves flaunt their voluptuous humps.
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While garlic is famous for warding off vampires, werewolves, and other things that go bump in the night, it also has a way of deterring would-be suitors from getting up close and personal because of its pungent odor.
You would never have pegged it as a social repellent at last night’s garlic tasting, though, hosted by Ferment Madison, the social committee for Madison’s local and sustainable food scene. For the past three years, the informal group of foodies has been organizing mingle-and-network events, aka “Happy Hours,” at RP's Pasta Company's Fork & Spoon Café. Last night’s event, which featured 11 varieties of raw and roasted garlic from local farms, illustrated just how, um, communal food can be.
For the more focused tasters, the difference between raw and roasted garlic was considerable. Middlebury Hills CSA's Rosewood garlic had a bit of bite in its raw form, but mellowed into one of the mildest selections when roasted. Meanwhile, the roasted version of Tom Brantmeier's Spanish Roja garlic kept the sharp kick of its raw counterpart, but added an earthy flavor and a buttery texture. Many of the 50 or so attendees squelched the aftertaste with made-to-order pasta dishes, wine, and garlic-scented conversations with their friends—or new acquaintances.
There’s something about garlic’s shape that resembles a certain giggleworthy part of the male anatomy, but that didn’t stop the ladies at Fork & Spoon from sampling the roasted cloves. In fact, they dived in with a ferocity fit for an Animal Planet special.
“Kill it! Kill it!” urged one female garlic-taster as another struggled to pry open a roasted bulb of the stuff before grabbing a breadstick and taking matters into her own hands. Breadstick bits began appearing in all sorts of unusual places: in wine glasses, pants pockets, and jammed into every nook and cranny of the bulbs.
The guys in attendance were a bit more reserved, focusing instead on garlic’s reputation as a seduction aid. After all, Hindu legend suggests that garlic can raise a man’s suave factor and increase the potency of something other than his breath.
“So, ah, come here often?” one swaggering male taster asked Decider while nibbling a clove of Chrysalis Purple. (As if to goad him on, the variety's growers at Blue Moon Community Farm in Oregon, Wisc. describe it as “ample, hefty bulbs” with “sumptuous, classic garlic flavor.”)
“I hear that there’s a spicy one over there called German Red,” he continued. “H-O-T. Catch you on the flipside.”
