What’s the best spice in the world?
That’s an easy one to answer: garlic. Because garlic makes everything taste better.
Not a day goes by that I don’t add garlic to my food. It goes on my salad, pasta dishes, fish, meats, stews, chili, just about everything. In my opinion, you can never use too much garlic. I suppose technically garlic is not a spice, but is a bulb of sorts, or more of a dehydrated vegetable. Even so, I use it to spice up my food so I consider it a spice.
What is it about garlic that makes its flavor so delicious and satisfying for people?
One interesting theory is of an evolutionary response to the health benefits that garlic provides.
Since people really dislike the smell of garlic on other people’s breath, they keep their distance and so don’t infect you with germs. Consequently, the gene for finding the taste pleasant is strongly selected for as a survival advantage.
Many also believe that we naturally crave garlic because of its inherent medicinal benefits. Garlic has been used medicinally for many years for treating bites, tumors, ulcers, wounds, headaches, heart diseases, cancer, pimples, measles and more. It is also believed to prevent infections such as the common cold.
No other plant has been held out for so long as a cure for so many human ailments.
But the reason that I like it is simple. It simply makes everything taste better. Warning, stand back when you are talking to me or you might get a nose full of garlic breath. Either that or coffee breath, but that’s a blog for another day…
