Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Garlic - National Pride

I went shopping for Pesach food today. While in the vegetable department, I saw something that was totally new to me. Two of the vegetable workers were tying up garlic, braiding the ends to make a kind of wreath.
I stopped for a few moments to watch this curious site. I told them that I had never seen such a thing, except perhaps in a movie. One of the workers told me, "You must buy this garlic. It is fresh. It is delicious. It is full of richness." Pointing to my little package of four small white garlics in a mesh bag, they laughed with disdain.
"Ha. You call that garlic. That is dry garlic from Greece. Look at this garlic. It is fresh and delicious; every time you cook, you can take off one head, and you can hang the rest up."
I told them that I really didn't need so much garlic, but they said, "We don't believe it. Do you understand that the little bag of garlic is from Greece, and this large wreath of garlic is an Israeli product (totzeret ha'aretz)! Wouldn't you rather have garlic grown in Israel?
Yes, I would. So I put back the dried garlic and picked up the wreath.
Now I can't wait to start cooking so that I can use my Israeli garlic. Yum.

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