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Fresh Garlic Season at the Shuk

14 years ago
3 Comments
by ck
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What’s a fresh garlic???

Anyone who has been to the shuk in Jerusalem (or pretty much any vegetable market in Israel) can’t help but notice that it’s fresh garlic season. North Americans, used to the bleached, chemical filled Chinese garlic that makes up 77% of the world’s garlic supply, are often confused with this real garlic and don’t know what to make of it. Israelis seem to be scrambling to buy it up and you just cannot argue with that gorgeous smell. Luckily, Café Liz, a blogger based in Tel Aviv comes to the rescue with handy info, tips and recipes about this crazy fresh garlic stuff.

Jessica says YUM!

Garlic is not supposed to be clean and white, people. When it’s fresh it’s covered in a lovely purple peel, which dries to an earthy brown… So we flock to the shook for the crates and crates of baladi garlic — the Arabic adjective slapped on anything that’s local, loved and maybe even unique to the region. We look for the largest bulbs, since they shrink as they dry. Vendors hang fat, unelegant braids outside their stands — nothing like the tidy, compact plaits you’ll find in Italy, for instance.

She offers a recipe for pickled garlic: “If you’ve ever had the desire to eat an entire head of garlic in one sitting, this is the way to go.” But what about the huge stalks? It seems like most people throw those out but Liz also offers, in another post, a recipe for Garlic greens paste with romano and walnuts, Yum! Perfect on pasta, bread, whatever.

Thanks Liz! Thanks Jessica for being a good sport and posing for these pics. To hell with Chinese garlic!

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ck

Founder and Publisher of Jewlicious, David Abitbol lives in Jerusalem with his wife, newborn daughter and toddler son. Blogging as "ck" he's been blocked on twitter by the right and the left, so he's doing something right.

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3 Comments

    • Josh? That video was kinda whack (and I am trying to be as kind as possible to fellow canucks). But it had NOTHING to do with garlic.

  • Completely off topic but hopefully of interest

    Pitom – Blasphemy and Other Serious Crimes (2011)

    Pitom is an avant-jazz quartet from New York founded by Jewish guitarist Yoshie Fruchter. When the band was created, it was named Plain Hex Quartet.
    Fruchter joined violinist Jeremy Brown, bassist Shanir Blumenkranz, and drummer Kevin Zubek in 2006 for an eclectic exploration into the realm of alterna-jewish tunes. Brown and Fruchter have become close collaborators with time and have worked together often. Pitom stayed not very known by the people and the critics for a long time. It took them two years of gigging, writing and rehearsing to get discovered by John Zorn, who eventually released them on his label Tzadik, partly due to their involvement in the “Radical Jewish Culture” led by Zorn himself.

    Links provided courtesy of John Zorn Tzadik Records mp3 320 kbps 124 MB

    http://tinyurl.com/6zz7ve4/file/504258334/Blasphemy.rar

    http://www.fileserve.com/file/kYbSzEX