THE QUOTABLE CLOVE
Here are a few of our favorites. If you would like to submit your own to our collection, just e-mail them to: The Chief Clove.
Along with the quote, be sure to give us the proper attribution (who said it and where). Also let us know if you would like to have your name (and home town) included for credit.
Garlic is not only consumed, it is discussed. Over the centuries, there have been more than a few bon mots uttered concerning our favorite flavoring. So whenever the conversation turns to discussing "the scented bulb," you can demonstrate your "garlic breadth" by using some of the following:
| To your health! The benefits of eating garlic cannot be understated. No matter how bad the smell, it's chic to reek (of garlic!). John and Helen Markovich |
| Garlic: the Italian National Flower Anonymous |
| "In our area, most restaurants are willing to trade away the vast superiority in flavor of fresh local garlic...the buyers at the farmers' markets, however, have by their presence demonstrated there is an interest in fresh and local, and the neophytes are amazed at how much better hand tendered garlic tastes." Leo Keene, Blue Moon Farm |
| I grow, cook with, and eat garlic raw. I even put it in my non-fat frozen yogurt milk shakes. I eat at least one head of raw garlic every day. This does not include the garlic I cook with and the pickled garlic I eat. I small like garlic, I look like garlic and I feel good... John Crawford, Barstow, CA |
| "I can't get enough garlic!" Ted Williams, baseball's greatest hitter |
| "Enjoy Garlic! Enjoy Life!" (but I still can't hit a curveball!) Walt Lyons, The Chief Clove at TheGarlicStore.com |
| "The rabble who had joined the people were overcome by greed, and the Sons of Israel began to wail again, 'Who will give us meat to eat?' They said, 'Think of the fish we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic! Here we are, wasting away, stripped of everything: there is nothing but manna for us to look at" The Bible, Numbers 11: 4-6. |
| "In cases of stings and bites by poisonous animals, garlic acts as a theriac. Applied to the spot bitten by the viper, or sting of scorpion, it produces successful results." Mohammed |
| "Under the pot lids of exciting ethnic cuisines, garlic has sneaked back into town. The uppity little bulb is ever emerging as the prime seasoning in favorite recipes. Suddenly it's chic to reek." Town and Country Magazine |
| "One study showed that eating garlic may help lower blood pressure". Time Magazine, 6 January 1992. |
| "How anything as small and delicate looking as a clove of garlic can have such an impact on food never ceases to amaze" Betsey Balsley, Los Angeles Times |
| "Some drunken young fellows stole a girl named Simathia, so the Megarians, primed with garlic, stole two girls of Aspasia's in revenge, and with that began the (Peloponnesian) war which broke out all over Greece" Aristophanes, Greek playwright |
| "Do not eat garlic or onions; for their smell will reveal that you are a peasant." Cervantes, Don Quixote (1614) |
| "What do you think? Young women of rank eat - you will never guess what - garlick!" Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley writing home during a visit to France |
| "Let's face it, is there a mortal soul who can deny that this cousin of the onion is not one of the most important seasoning agents known to man?" Home Economics Reading Service, Washington, DC |
| "Garlic: From Dracula to pasta, herb reeks of history." Hackensack (NJ) Record |
| "Unless very sparingly used, the flavor of garlic is disagreeable to the English palate" A popular British cookbook of the Victorian era |
| "We don't mind garlic or onions on the breath - but we do object to the smell of liquor." Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontaine |
| "Garlic is good to chew and fumigate." 8th Century BC Assyrian Health Guide |
| "Oh, that miracle clove! Not only does garlic taste good, it cures baldness and tennis elbow, too" Lauri Burrows Grad, Los Angeles Magazine |
| "Garlic should be eaten in moderation, less the blood of a man overheats. In truth, if garlic is forbidden, a man's health and proper strength vanish away; but if it is then mixed with food in due proportion, it will bring back his strength" St. Hildegarde, 12th century |
| "Fight Mouthwash ... eat garlic." Lloyd J. Harris, The Official Garlic Lovers Handbook |
| "Without Garlic and Onions it is impossible to deel truly human". Francesco Savorgnan, Italian artist and furniture mover. |
| "The soul of pesto may be basil, but its heart is garlic" Pittsburgh Press |
| "The soul of pesto may be basil, but its heart is garlic" Pittsburgh Press |
| "Sith garlick then hath power to save from death, Bear with it though it makes unsavory breath; And scorn not garlick, like to some that think, It only makes men wink, and drink and stink." Sir John Harrington, The English Doctor (1609) |
| "Garlic soup saves lives." Provencal saying |
| "The air of Provence was particularly perfumed by the refined essence of this mystically attractive bulb." Alexandre Dumas |
| "Garlic is a habit and a passion." Kim Upton, Chicago Sun-Times |
| "Each clove of garlic has a sacred power..." Rev. Hilderic Friend, "Flowers and Flower Lore", 1891 |
| "...eat no onions, nor garlic, for we are to utter sweat breath" Shakespeare, A Midsummer-Night's Dream |
| "Eat onions in March and garlic in May - Then the rest of the year, your doctor can play" Old folk rhyme |
| "Pilgarlic: Bald men (as were lepers) were called Pilgarlics in Medieval Europe because of their use of Allium as a scalp tonic and as an application for leprosy. Another theory is that the shape of the bad head suggested a peeled garlic bulb." Lloyd J. Harris, The Book of Garlic |
| "Wel loved he garleek, onyons and eek leekers, And for to drinken strong wyn, reed as blood." Chaucer |
| "There is no such thing as a little garlic." Arthur Baer |
| "Garlic all powerful; marvelous seasoning; you are the essence, the incense which revives and exhilarates; you are the spur that excites, stimulates. Garlic! You stir up, you impel, you cheer; you are the only condiment, you are the glorious one, the sovereign extract of the earth." Gustave Coquiot (do you think he likes garlic?) |
| "There are many miracles in the world to be celebrated and, for me, garlic is among the most deserving." Professor Leo Buscaglia |
| "The best thing to do with garlic of course, is to eat it." Sylvia Rubin, San Francisco Chronicle |
| "It is not really an exaggeration to say that peace and happiness begin, geographically, where garlic is used in cooking". X. Marce Boulestin |
| "Garlic. It's the clove with clout." Miami News |
| "There's no doubt that after you eat a lot of garlic, you just kind of feel like you are floating, you feel ultra-confident, you feel capable of going out and whipping your weight in wild cats. It's not like being drunk. Being drunk is a different kind of euphoria. Being stoned is a different kind of euphoria. Garlic euphoria is kind of like you've got both feet planted on the ground - you're part of the world. And yet, you definitely do feel real good." Les Blank, Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers |
| "There is an inscription in Egyptian characters on the pyramid which records the quantities of radishes onions and garlic consumed by the laborers who constructed it." Greek historian, Herodotus, describing his visits to the pyramids at Giza |
| "I cannot enjoy any pleasure or happiness unless I share it with you. And I must tell you that I have had a whole field of garlic planted for your benefit, so that when you come, we may be able to have plenty of your favorite dishes!" Letter, Duchess of Milan to the Duchess of Mantua, 1491. |
| "Three nickels will get you on the subway - but garlic will get you a seat" (Very) old New York saying |
| "Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food" Hippocrates |
| "...O, he is as tedious as a tired horse, a railing wife; Worse than a smoky house. I had rather live with cheese and garlic in a windmill far than feed on cates and have him talk to me in any summer house in Christendom." Shakespeare, Henry IV |
| "Gilroy community leaders agreed that the time had come for garlic to come storming out of the pantry closet." Mike Dunne, Sacramento Bee |
| "There's something about garlic that creates excitement. People can get real loose around garlic." Lloyd J. Harris, quoted in Time Magazine |
| "Since garlic hath powers to save from death, bear with it though it makes unsavory breath" Robert of Normandy, 1100 AD |
| "Gilroy, California. Population 20,000. Except early August. Then it swells fivefold. One hundred thousand people going bananas over GARLIC!" TWA Ambassador Magazine |
| "Sex and garlic, garlic and sex. If we keep this up, we'll both be wrecks" Graffiti, restaurant bathroom, The Official Garlic Lover's Handbook, L.J. Harris |
| "No one is indifferent to garlic. People either love it or hate it, and most good cooks seem to belong to the first group." Faye Levy |