Pungent lily, stinking rose

Is there ever such a thing as too much garlic? Not unless you are one of those creatures of the night that sprout wings and drink blood. Pauline D. Loh sings an ode to the ultimate herb.

Not far from where we were in San Francisco is a little town that celebrates garlic in great style. Every summer, the citizens of Gilroy gather to eat, cook and practically breathe garlic. Well, you can't help but breathe garlic. The aroma is pervasive, hence its rather dubious floral names of pungent lily or stinky rose.

(It is, in fact, more a lily than a rose. Garlic belongs to the Allium family, which includes onions, shallots, chives and leeks.)

The Gilroy Garlic Festival has expanded over the years from what was basically a local farmers' market fair to a regional agricultural showcase attracting garlic enthusiasts from all over the United States and often, from abroad. Professional and home chefs gather to face off across stoves as they fry garlic, braise garlic and barbecue garlic.

There are other contests as well, including a beauty pageant in which the winner is crowned the queen of garlic. Games for the kids, concerts for the bigger kids and an array of snacks, including garlic ice cream keep visitors to the Festival happy for a day.

While over here in China, we are not quite there yet in celebrating garlic with such gusto, we already beat the Americans in being the world's top grower, and consumers, of garlic.

Most Chinese cuisines use garlic, some more liberally than others, but it is a rare dish that gets away from the garlic bulbs.

By the way, there are cloves and bulbs, but there is a species in China that has no separate cloves, but comes in one large bulb. This is the single-head garlic that comes from Yunnan, and this is the season that they are being harvested. If anything, these are even more pungent than the cloved variety, but one fat bulb goes a long way. One of my favorite ways to eat these is to slice them thinly and then deep-fry them as little chips. They are great beer food, but you have to go easy on the quantity.

Garlic, like all Allium, is pretty strong, and too much at one sitting can wreak havoc on your digestive system. That is the reason why pure vegetarians, like some Buddhists and Hindus, avoid garlic and consider them "non-vegetarian".

Further north, the tender new garlic that is tinged such a pretty purple is already in the markets. I love these pickled in a sugary vinegar solution, and I love them sliced into quarters and braised with chicken in the Chinese variation of the French recipe that calls for 40 cloves of garlic.

New garlic is not as strong as the seasoned garlic that we usually get all year round. Their pungency is still relatively undeveloped, and they are almost starchy when caramelized and cooked down in stews, or braised.

In herbal medicine in China and in the West, garlic is an important part of the health cornucopia. In China, it is a traditional remedy for colds, and its antibiotic, antibacterial and antifungal properties were recognized long before the laboratories in the labs discovered them.

As far as I am concerned, it is a delicious health supplement and there is always a stack of garlic on my windowsill, which is replenished on my weekly forays to the markets.

Here are a few of the most popular recipes for garlic in my family. It ranges from the peculiarly Beijing way of eating crisp young cucumbers with a dressing of vinegar and fresh, chopped garlic to my son's pasta Aglio Olio, that most simple of spaghetti dish using lots of garlic gently sauted in olive oil and tossed with freshly cooked pasta.

My recommendation is the aromatic three-cup chicken that combines fresh basil leaves, caramelized slices of ginger, the best sesame oil, soy sauce and yellow wine and of course, tender sweet cloves of garlic.

Finally, there is fried rice scented with garlic. You do need staples, after all.

Ingredients (serves 4):

500 g chicken (one large leg, or breast)

6-8 thin slices ginger

10 cloves of garlic, peeled 5 tbsp yellow wine or sherry

5 tbsp good dark soy sauce

5 tbsp sesame oil

1 large bunch basil tips

1 large chili, roughly sliced

1 tbsp sugar

Method:

1. Clean chicken and chop into small chunks, bite-sized.

2. Heat up half the sesame oil in a large frying pan and fry the ginger slices and garlic over medium fire until both ginger and garlic cloves are caramelized around the edges.

3. Add sugar to the hot pan and immediately add chicken pieces. Stir-fry so chicken is coated by the melting sugar.

4. Keep heat high and add soy sauce, rest of sesame oil, followed by the yellow wine or sherry.

5. Toss to coat ingredients with the sauce that's forming. Add a little water and turn down to a simmer.

6. When the sauce is reduced and sticky, turn up heat again and add the basil leaves and chili. Remove from heat immediately. Plate and serve immediately.

Ingredients (serves 4):

2 cups cooked rice

4-6 cloves garlic, skinned and chopped

1 Chinese sausage, thinly sliced

2 tbsp diced carrots

1 bunch spring onions, finely diced

1 egg, beaten

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Oil a small frying pan and pour in the beaten egg to make a thin omelette. Slice the omelette into thin strips. Set aside.

2. Heat up a tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan and fry the garlic over medium heat until golden brown. Add the sliced sausages so that the fat is rendered.

3. Add the cooked rice and carrot and toss well to mix. Continue to fry over high heat until fragrant. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

4. Garnish with spring onions and omelette strips and serve hot.

Ingredients (serves 2):

300 g spaghetti

2 bulbs of garlic, skinned and thinly sliced

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 red chili roughly sliced.

1 tsp salt, or to taste

Chopped parsley or coriander to garnish

Method:

1. Cook spaghetti according to packet instructions. Drain and set aside when cooked.

2. Heat up the olive oil and add the garlic chips. Fry over medium heat until garlic just starts to color. Remove the pan away from direct heat and hold it as the garlic finished cooking to a nice light golden brown.

3. Remove half the garlic, and return the pan to fire, adding the chili and the salt. Fry for about 10 seconds and remove from heat.

4. Tip the cooked spaghetti into the pan and mix well, adjusting seasoning with more salt if needed. Garnish with greens and serve at once.

Ingredients:

4 baby cucumbers, or 2 regular green cucumbers or kyuri

2-3 cloves of garlic, roughly minced

2 tbsp Zhejiang black vinegar

A pinch of sugar

A dash of sesame oil

Method:

1. Top and tail the cucumbers and cut each into half.

2. Gently smash the cucumbers with the side of your cleaver so they break, but do not quite fall apart.

3. Mix the sugar and sesame oil into the black vinegar, stir to dissolve and then drizzle over the smashed cucumbers.

4. Finally, top with the fresh, chopped garlic. Mix in the garlic at the table.

Food notes:

Fresh garlic is pungent, but the vinegar in this dish lightly pickles the chopped cloves. It is a great dish to have as a side salad in the spring when the erratic weather brings about clouds of cold germs.