Alliums--garlic, onions, chives, shallots, and scallions--have reentered gourmet kitchens with power, punch, and vitality. Once considered unstylish, somewhat offensive, and too earthy for finer palates, they are today's culinary prima donnas, fit to accompany almost anything on the table.
Another reason to eat alliums: they've been discovered to contain incredible levels of an anticancer compound called quercetin. According to Dr. Terrance Leighton, chairman of microbiology and immunology at the University of California-Berkeley, a recent study concluded that Chinese who consume large quantities of onions and garlic have a twenty-fold lower risk of acquiring stomach cancer than do those who shun them. Other tests have shown that laboratory rats fed quercetin developed 25 percent fewer breast tumors than those who received none. European scientists have reported that quercetin enhances the effects of certain anticancer drugs and have commenced clinical tests on humans.
Onion Aficionados
Baked, fried, creamed; in soups, casseroles, salads, and sauces--whatever the intended use, onion shoppers relish the delightful choices on the market today.
The onion aficionado recognizes the 1015 Supersweet from Texas, the Imperial Sweet from Southern California, the Carzalia from New Mexico, Washington State, Oregon, and Maui. Georgia's Vidalias' mild and sweet taste is so special that it is trademarked.
Onions have only 60 calories per cup and provide one-third the recommended daily intake of vitamin C. In addition to their being anticarcinogenic, some researchers claim they lower blood pressure. American consumption has increased from thirteen pounds to seventeen pounds per person per year since 1984, perhaps because of the growing ethnic population and increased interest in ethnic cuisines. However, Europeans and Asians still consume far more.
Garlic Popularity
There are garlicky pilafs, soups, and vegetables; drinks made with yogurt, mint, water, and garlic; Bloody Marys with garlic added; and, of course, stews, meat dishes, and fish soups. There is even a garlic ice cream sundae--vanilla ice cream topped with a honey conserve in which garlic has been steeped for a month.
Although man has cooked with garlic for some six thousand years, nobody outside of northern China had found a way to cultivate tender, silvery garlic sprouts, the allium family's real piece de resistance, until Robert Tsui introduced them in the past year at the Peking Gourmet Inn in suburban Virginia. Unlike French-style, sun-kissed sprouts, which are suitable only for salads, Tsui's garlic sprouts are grown entirely in darkness under conditions of controlled temperature and humidity, which gives them their uniquely mild flavor and tenderness. It wasn't long before such notables as President George Bush, along with family, friends, the press corps, and hungry Secret Service agents got word of wok-tossed shrimp, pork, and other meats mixed with these garlic sprouts. Clearly, alliums have arrived as haute cuisine.
Garlic History And
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