Gahlic

Killington Vermont.  My best friend Kelsey and I embarked on the journey in her father's Subaru wagon packed with snacks, skis and CDs. We were staying about 2 miles down the road from the mountain in a little place called the Butternut Pancake Inn (yes it was just as cute as it sounds). Each day as we drove up the long and winding road leading to the mountain, we would pass by a restaurant called "The Garlic". After our first view, each time we passed  for the rest of the trip, we would both exclaim in unison "Da gahhhhhlic. Mmmmmm".

Pardon the bad breath and you've got yourself one of the most simple and refined but yet most widely used and delicious flavorings of all time. I am a huge fan of the bulb and so is Kels. We had to give this place a try.

I wish I took more photos of this spot. Better yet, I wish I could have captured the smell and somehow shared it with you internet people. The place reeked of garlic, in a good way. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING on the menu had garlic in it. Instead of the usual bread and butter/olive oil, it was bread and a crushed garlic clove topped with parmesan cheese, oil and vinegar. Genius. Kelsey and I both ordered the creamy garlic soup and we were in heaven. I know I promised no more crappy pictures but all I had was my phone. I followed with a salad with garlic vinaigrette and garlic butter roasted vegetables. Kels got garlic chicken with sauteed spinach and tomatoes.

Here we had an entire restaurant devoted to this one ingredient, worshipping and savoring it and honoring it as though it was a food of the gods. Maybe this is how we should look at all we eat. We so often take food for granted, shoving it down our esophaguses in cars on our way to work- or maybe reducing ourselves to eating food that can't even really be identified as "food" (hello cheese puff and Twinkies).

Jump into your food. Savor it. Smell it. Talk about it with your friends. Have fun cooking it. Grow it. Save some for your neighbor. Worship garlic, or whatever food you love. 

"Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good." - Alice May Brock