Yesterday a bunch of us were helping to make squash soup – the new craze sweeping kitchens of Austin. I say helping, but what I really mean is standing about drinking and smoking and watching tatianastarr make soup. A few of us were deskinning garlic in large quantities.
“I feel a bit sick.”
“Yeah – I’m coming down with something.”
“Well,” said tatianastarr, “if you swallow a clove of garlic covered in olive oil, that will help purify your blood.”
Without thinking too much about how big cloves of garlic are, I’d partly swallowed one. Gulp. It was stuck. A few more gulps and it’s still stuck. I’m starting to get nervous. An ulmighty gulp the likes of which only emperors and queens have ever seen saved me from an embarrassing asphyxiating flapping arm ‘give me a Heimlich’ gesture to the crowd. And then we started experimenting.
Chocolate and raw garlic have complimentary flavours it was generally agreed. Think sweet and sour only with more eye-watering.