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Speaking of garlic

The pungent bulb is more popular than ever with cooks, health care providers and trend-spotters

Garlic is its own, unique universe.

With 300 varieties, it should be.

Explore a little more and you’ll find garlic is like a world unto itself, its own Fantasy-bulb island – its own subculture, as pop theorist Dick Hebdige might have it, with its own fans, recipes and myths.

Garlic is one recipe additive that doesn’t require a lot of negotiation. Whereas you might add a touch of basil or a hint of fennel, garlic is all-or-nothing. There’s no flavour of the month here: you either like it, or you don’t.

It’s rare to watch someone get chatty about shredding cheese, mincing opinions, or squeezing lemons. While these make nice toppings, they’ve got no allure.

And while toppings are fine, nothing has the zesty, the sexy, the all-around appeal of garlic.

Rebel rocker David Bowie has been quoted online saying "garlic rocks!", while J.J., of the ’70s TV series Good Times, quips "love garlic bread. Take the pill regularly. Don't do anything with the clove itself."

The retail world has tailor made items for garlic, which run the marketing gamut. Books like Cornelia Adam’s Garlic, which retails for around $14, and the Totally Garlic Cookbook, at $8, are evidence of the growing popularity of the plant as coffee table banter. The technicolour photos detail not only creative ways to cook with garlic, but different ways to visually present, the pow wow healing plant.

Roasting potters for garlic, made of porous clay, sell for around $14, with funky trim on the lid to boot. Garlic storage containers range from straw baskets to half-foot-high jars.

The Mercedes of garlic crushers comes from Taiwan, and sells for close to $30. The latest Swiss model, all aluminum, steel and big black grips with a dash of red, allow one to put the entire clove, skin and all, into the crushing device. Or to draw out the experience, a tube-like tool can be used to roll garlic cloves and de-skin them in the same motion.

But simply chopping garlic will do, and experts say eating cloves raw is the best way to get the maximum health content out the bulb.

According to various medical research studies, garlic cures just about all. Garlic has been known to enhance immune systems, lower cholesterol levels, and combat heart disease. If only it could do your taxes.

At Mount Currie’s Herbal Emporium, Isabelle Ranger says the "hand and feet absorb a lot of medicine," and some people rub cloves of garlic under their toes and around their hands. "Aged garlic" is also considered to be a select specialty, with extra antibiotic properties.

For new parents, a combination of crushed garlic in olive oil, left to sit overnight, with a touch of willowbark, is a remedy for bad earaches in children, according to Ranger.

Dr. Varro Tyler says in online magazine, Garlic Health Benefits, that "garlic works. Studies in American medical schools show garlic reduces the cholesterol level about 10 per cent and the tri-glycerides closer to 15 per cent" Just how much one must consume to achieve this reduction is open to debate, but it conjures up images of health fanatics consuming whole garlics by the clumps, leaving fainting non-fans in their wake. Tyler says: "The dried state is better, if you’re not interested in having the garlic breath."

The odour is unavoidable. The allicin compound of the plant is the component dispersed throughout the body. Once it reaches the lungs, the infamous garlic breath is yours for the day.

Allicin tablets are available as garlic supplements, designed to be dissolved in the small intestine, in place of the first choice, fresh garlic, or in its powdered, dried state.

As such, garlic qualifies for a lot of anti-titles: it’s antibiotic, an anti-cancer agent – even anti-vampire. In some Eastern European cultures, garlic is used to scare off witches, warlocks, and anything else Buffy the Slayer needs to vanquish to save the human race.

The Guinness world record holder for the longest string of garlic is one grown by Peter Josling, measured at 123 feet. Josling also runs the Garlic Information Centre, funnily enough, and to celebrate the validation he held a dinner with proceeds going to the British Diabetic Association Research Foundation – more evidence of its health benefits.

In France, they tell the story of four thieves who robbed a plague victim’s grave but did not catch the disease. Apparently they ate garlic soaked in vinegar every day, which held the germs at bay, and the concoction was dubbed "Four Thieves Vinegar."

People love to talk about garlic, a kind of "people’s choice" of the root crops.

Whether it’s great dinner tales or horror stories about bad breath, garlic generates more tales than the local watering hole and the bored old neighbour put together.

It’s pretty rare to see someone talking about the bad, garlic-infused entrée they just tasted with a frown on their face. But garlic is a group experience; everyone at dinner should have some so no one can complain about another dinner guest’s breath. You can have all the health benefits, and smell bad together.

Like most trends or popular items, some people take it too far.

I once rode in a car with a taxi driver who had elevated taking garlic to a near religion. From West 41 st Avenue all the way to downtown Vancouver, my poor little sister and I had to listen to him wax on and on. Nose plugs would’ve been handy.

But most people don’t take it that far, instead admiring garlic’s great reputation from afar and indulging wherever possible.

According to one local kitchen goods retailer, there’s a million ways to dice it, store it or wrap it up as a gift and present the pungent beige bulb to someone you care about.

The Pick Me Up Garlic Drink is one beverage you can mix up this weekend, courtesy of the site www.nevertrustanyonewhodoesntlikegalic.com. Just blend three medium cloves of garlic, one grapefruit, and a 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper for your very own nirvana booster.

Garlic has always been one of the most socially acceptable smells to carry around. Garlic breath is excused with that knowing look from a work colleague or post-dinner visit, with that "oh, you just had gaaaarlic." This is known as the garlic pause-point, when people start thinking they want some too, and when was the last time they had some?

And in the good food era, organic garlic from Mexico is on hand at local markets, for around $3.49 per ounce, versus $3.49 per pound of the garden variety from California.

Perhaps one of the relaxed, lingering vibes of garlic is that it takes its time. The chopping or crushing usually supersedes some fantastic Italian or other world cuisine meal, requires a touch of concentration, and makes for the perfect conversation starter on a dinner date.

"We sell a lot of garlic – and people ask for organic, too," says one produce staffer, who estimates Nesters Market goes through around 60 pounds per week of the edible gold.

There’s no shortage of garlic fans on the Internet. Find links to facts and festivals at the in your face site, www.nevertrustanyonewhodoesntlikegarlic.com. At the informative botanichealth.com you can buy garlic oil soft gels (they’re odourless). And the self-explanatory gourmetgarlicgardens.com comes complete with colour close-ups.

So while the latest government cuts to medicare plans might be a pain, don’t worry. Just reach for the nearest clove.