Love Your Garlic
November 15, 2011 12:18 PM   Subscribe

 
That guy needs to be my grandfather. Now.
posted by grubi at 12:25 PM on November 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


A remnant of a very very brief relationship I was in is the poster for this movie, given to me by short-time gf. Still have it.
posted by Danf at 12:55 PM on November 15, 2011


That guy needs to be my grandfather. Now.

I will happily eat copious amounts of garlic, insist that the garlic was grown by those who grew it, yell, dance, and pretend to be your grandfather.
posted by entropone at 1:19 PM on November 15, 2011 [2 favorites]


That guy is cool.

I notice that Doctor Weil has backed off on his preaching about the panacea effect of eating garlic. In his first couple books he said eat two cloves every day to energize your immune system but in his last book I read . . . nothing.

Eating copious amounts of garlic really does produce a strange physical effect on me. It's like my blood and my muscles are drunk and yet my central nervous system is perfectly clean. I am sure there is some significant effect but since you cannot patent garlic and sell it we will probably never find out what it is.
posted by bukvich at 1:24 PM on November 15, 2011


I read a century-old vegetarian cookbook recently (I've been a vegetarian for 20 years). In its 344 pages, there are a grand total of six mentions of garlic. I decided that settled it: If I go back in time 100 years, I will die of garlic withdrawal.
posted by jocelmeow at 1:24 PM on November 15, 2011 [2 favorites]


I will happily eat copious amounts of garlic, insist that the garlic was grown by those who grew it, yell, dance, and pretend to be your grandfather.

Papa Entropone!
posted by grubi at 1:49 PM on November 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


Garlic is as good as ten anything.

I grow my own.
posted by Decani at 1:52 PM on November 15, 2011


This looks like it's just describing culinary uses but it's important to know that raw, uncooked garlic can cause chemical burns and anaphylactic shock. (Gruesome pictures in the book Garlic and Other Alliums published by the Royal Society of Chemistry p. 293.) There's evidence that it has lots of health benefits but some people get carried away.
posted by XMLicious at 2:52 PM on November 15, 2011


I'd never heard of it until I saw a crew member with a t-shirt with the title in "Burden of Dreams" (documentary about "Fitzcarraldo") and was motivated to track it down.

I just saw Burden of Dreams at Lincoln Center and Les Blank was there, wearing this t-shirt.
posted by nathancaswell at 3:05 PM on November 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


Wait, unless you mean saw one of the Fitzcarraldo crewmembers in Burden of Dreams wearing a "Garlic" shirt. Cause there's a rad Burden of Dreams shirt out there too. That's what I saw Les Blank wearing, his own shirt.
posted by nathancaswell at 3:07 PM on November 15, 2011


Gruesome pictures
I'm hoping that's not from just eating it.
I grow about 250 heads a year and it goes in just about everything I cook.
In fact, I'm cooking pasta now that's gonna get a whole raw bulb crushed into it.
posted by MtDewd at 3:21 PM on November 15, 2011 [2 favorites]


On the sl's youtube page, the top two related videos are
Dr Robert Beck: Garlic is a poison
GARLIC AND ONION ARE POISON. PT1

Sometimes it's hard to know who to believe.
posted by fredludd at 3:26 PM on November 15, 2011


A few years ago Les Blank was given a lifetime achievement award at the Ashland Independent Film Festival. He has a lot of good documentaries. Gap-Toothed Women is another great little doc.
posted by bstreep at 3:27 PM on November 15, 2011


I'm hoping that's not from just eating it.

Only if you eat it raw, I think. Something about the more caustic compounds being broken down by heat. I imagine it's the same thing as, although cutting raw onions makes your eyes tear up you can sniff deeply from a bowl of sauteed onions without untoward consequences.
posted by XMLicious at 4:08 PM on November 15, 2011


Some time around the mid 80's Les Blank came to our school and showed this film. He had a toaster oven filled with garlic cloves that filled the room with the aroma of roasting garlic as the film ran. Afterward, we ate the garlic, squeezing the cloves onto small pieces of bread.
posted by gamera at 4:12 PM on November 15, 2011 [3 favorites]


I'm hoping that's not from just eating it.

Only if you eat it raw, I think.


Seems pretty clear from the link that those photos are the result of topical applications of raw garlic. Think garlic poultice. Ah, quack medicine, your wonders never cease.
posted by howfar at 4:14 PM on November 15, 2011


A pretty complete listing of Les Blank's films.

You really only need to know about these films if you are at all interested in food, dance, or joy
posted by Toekneesan at 4:21 PM on November 15, 2011


Definitely quack medicine in the case of the feet, but a poultice on the guy's lips?

As someone who has tried eating garlic raw, I can easily believe that eating large amounts of it would be pretty harmful. That's how I found out about this - there's a family story that my grandfather picked up the habit of eating raw onion sandwiches during the Great Depression. I tried that and it just tasted horrible, then out of curiosity I tried garlic (because I too enjoy garlic in mass quantities) and I couldn't believe how painful it was - not hot like a pepper but stinging.

A section of that book lists a handful of studies on health benefits from different forms of garlic, though as bukvich points out there hasn't been the financial incentive for it to be comprehensively investigated, and it's enough to persuade me that there's probably some kind of benefit under some circumstances (and also mentions that the way most garlic supplements are processed probably makes them worthless.) But I would imagine it's a "too much of a good thing" situation, like you want to make sure you get enough vitamin A but if you eat a polar bear's liver it's got so much it can be lethally toxic.
posted by XMLicious at 4:46 PM on November 15, 2011


The first time I saw an ad for the movie "Wings of Desire" I was in Montreal. The title in French was "Les Ailes du Désir". I mis-read it as "L'ail du Désir" ("The Garlic of Desire").

Sometimes I think about that movie that never existed. It sounds interesting.
posted by benito.strauss at 4:47 PM on November 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


Dr Robert Beck: Garlic is a poison

VAMPIRE!
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 4:51 PM on November 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


I am pretty great, it's clear.

thanks for the accolades.
posted by garlic at 5:16 PM on November 15, 2011 [8 favorites]


The set of things that are better than ten mothers is...vast.

That out of the way: garlic is a lovely food.
posted by everichon at 5:22 PM on November 15, 2011


> it's important to know that raw, uncooked garlic can cause chemical burns and anaphylactic shock

Well, sure, but if you get the wrong ten mothers, you're not going to have an easy go of things either.
posted by ardgedee at 5:30 PM on November 15, 2011 [2 favorites]




I will happily eat copious amounts of garlic, insist that the garlic was grown by those who grew it, yell, dance, and pretend to be your grandfather.

Guys, I have seen entropone eat copious amounts of garlic, yell, dance, and pretend to be various grandmothers. This is an offer you should accept.

And this is a terrific, terrific video. Midnight garlic snack tonight, ya'll.
posted by hippugeek at 6:56 PM on November 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


Yes, Spain isn't known for Vampires, but that doctor sure looks like one (debunking ).
posted by jeffburdges at 7:06 PM on November 15, 2011


I regularly eat raw garlic, one or two cloves. You don't want to over-do it. People in Bosnia eat garlic with nearly all meals. It's very healthy. Garlic is poison for dogs and cats. So are onions. So is avocado.
anything eaten to excess is poison.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 8:12 PM on November 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


I adore that film, and I adore garlic so much that when I saw how to peel a head of garlic in less than 10 seconds on YouTube, I was ecstatic.
posted by Specklet at 9:15 PM on November 15, 2011 [1 favorite]


One of my guilty stinky pleasures is raw chopped garlic smeared on blue cheese (don't judge me!).

My wife already hates blue cheese on its own, so you can imagine how popular I am with her the evening after I eat this concoction. And so I reserve it for the few times that she is not going to be around that night.
posted by Deathalicious at 9:47 PM on November 15, 2011 [2 favorites]


Blue cheese! I love that stuff! But not with garlic. That is too intense.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 11:55 PM on November 15, 2011


I too love garlic. Especially when you slow-roast a whole head slathered in extra-virgin olive oil in a low oven for hours, then spread the resultant sweet and mellow mush onto crusty bread with a bit of provolone cheese.

I ate half a head of this stuff once, and the next day went to visit a relative in the hospital. Apparently, my skin was actually giving off the aroma of my previous evening's snack, something of which I was blissfully unaware, and I was actually asked to leave the room.

So now, much like Deathalicious, I must be judicious in my garlic indulgence. But it's worth it.
posted by kinnakeet at 5:56 AM on November 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


Man, Feynman is everywhere.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 7:03 AM on November 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


I saw that film on Colfax in Denver thirty years ago and after a while I thought I smelled garlic and then I KNEW I smelled garlic: Les Blank was there, roasting garlic for the audience. It was good.
posted by kozad at 1:41 PM on November 16, 2011


When the film came out and toured in art theaters in the 80s, Blank promoted it as the first film to be shown in "Aroma-Round" meaning that either he or a staffer would be cooking garlic butter in the theater while the film was shown. As he did, with Elenore Roosevelt's chocolate covered Garlic cloves distributed for free during intermission.

Blank understood the relation between passionate food and passionate music. Before there were internet era "foodies" there were people discovering good local music and good honest local food.

I myself suggest you try Romanian muzhdej, a simple sauce made by crushing garlic cloves (try it using about ten) with some salt and pouring a small amount of hot water or soup broth on it, which will thicken as it cools. Spooned on meat or vegetables it is a Moldavian vision of heaven.
posted by zaelic at 2:15 PM on November 16, 2011 [1 favorite]


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