Some Things You Ought to Know about California's annual Gilroy Garlic Festival
- It's easy to find, just south of San Francisco and San Jose, along
Highway 101. Then just follow your nose. The scent of "the stinking
rose" is ubiquitous, omnipotent, even---triggering urges omnivorous. The
sweet stench of garlic will get in your hair and will cling to your
clothes. Demos and cook-offs abound. If you are a Wonder-Bread-and-mayo type, and do not much care
for garlic, don't go along just to please your Uncle. You will reek for
hours. (So will your uncle.)
- All right, it's funky. Dust is everywhere. This is no place to wear your
Ralph Laurens. Sneaks and shorts are more like it. But when you hear
them leedle clove-arinos poppin' and slidin' and a-sizzlin' in the big
big festival pans, and see the cooks fixing mountains of garlic bread,
plus Greek, Mexican, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, American and
International pastas, stuffed mushrooms and stir-fry dishes, this
beckoning,
- Mouth-surfing symphony of flavors and exotic tastes
suddenly becomes so
much more important than muddy sandals, pooling grease stains on your
old Jimi Hendrix t-shirt, and butter running down your leg. This is a
great place to road-test a new romance, if you like risks.
- And it's certainly camp. Some folks are selling garlic bulbs dressed as
celebrities and a "self-cleaning" garlic press. Oh, don't leave
out the Clovettes, the men and women in garlic bulb hats who jog at the
festivals, exuding a type of booming good health and bonhomie that is an
inspiration to all of us who love good clean American living and people
who dress as centipedes. You are invited to dress up, too, as the herb
superb: many do. Those who prefer a more soignee look can buy garlic
hats.
- Over in the children's area There
is entertainment, games,
prizes, arts, crafts, and many opportunities for jumping up and down.
and a special Teen Zone. Kids will also snap up garlic photos, game
booths, face-paints, clowns, magicians, marionettes, balloon animals,
crafts and hosts of charming retail items and mementos that Mommies will
undoubtedly wish to acquire. Park the kiddies here. You go back to
Gourmet Alley.
- Breathe deep. As you stroll along, sniffing and snuffling,
your senses
made sharp in this cacophonous Smell-o-Rama of flaming pans and feral,
gustatory lusts, the little mushrooms scream "Eat Me!" and the barbeque
bubbles and
winks in the California sun. And there's free garlic ice cream
(see below.) Get ahold of yourself. There
was an earthquake here, you know. Garlic lovers hardly noticed.
- Consider these garlic facts: Garlic is good for you.
Boosts the immune
system, banishes vampires, de-clogs the old pipes. For over 6000 years,
yogis in India have warned seekers of peace and chastity to stay away
from garlic, calling it rajasic, a major-league aphrodisiac. Those it
does not scare away it makes bolder.
- Ice cream can't make that claim, not chocolate, likker or snuff. The
more you eat that bad, bad old bulb, and the hungrier you get for it,
and more your body thanks you. So try to overlook the brash, absurd and
occasionally disgusting excesses of the annual Gilroy fests (more on
that later), there is too much to savor and learn about the bulb to
miss.
- There are 684,222,288,205 ways to cook with garlic.
And that's just the
dishes with turnips. The Great Garlic Recipe Contest and Cook-off will
show you 7,500,188 more. Here famous chefs and food critics preside over
exotic festival dishes made from original and unpublished recipes. First
prize is $5000. If you'd like to get in on this action, you must apply
early for an entry form. Or just go for the judging and samplings at the
festival. Clear your palate with the rather nice local wines from the
Santa Clara valley, available throughout. During each three-day
stinkfests, cooks use more than two tons of garlic: with nearly100,000 people
in attendance each year, the wine figures cannot be running far behind.
- Royalty graces the event. Miss Gilroy Garlic Queen assists
in pre-festival promotion, and appears
at various events throughout the festival
- As with any festival whose origins are in France, with wine comes song:
music and entertainment on four stages, running continuously from 10
a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
- But what about some of the disgusting stuff I promised to tell you
about?
- Garlic chocolate for sale here. As is garlic ice cream. And---look
out---garlic iced tea. If you wish to torture your children, you can
always get them garlic snow cones.
- For all info, call the Festival Office
at (408) 842-1625 or go to website
here.
© Bill Strange Photography
