Balance of Food

Food shows downplay the wonderful impact garlic could have in a dish

We love garlic. We wish food TV shows loved garlic as much as we love garlic.

Yes, some people are afraid of garlic so food shows, even on PBS, have to assume everyone is scared of garlic. They aren't scared of onions. They chop onions in tiny pieces.

The spiel is essentially the same. Slice the garlic so the garlic won't be too strong.

They rarely point out that the smaller pieces you have of garlic, the more flavor you will get. Yet they never cut the garlic into smaller pieces.

That common denominator means garlic goes in, just not to do what garlic could to improve a recipe.

The garlic press can get garlic into tiny pieces without resorting to a knife. This can be good if your clove is small enough. Wrestling a larger clove into a garlic press is an activity that would never make it into a cooking show. Watching Mary Berg use a garlic press on Mary Makes It Easy proves she makes it easy by not getting all the garlic into her dish.

"[G]arlic that has been tragically smashed through one of those abominations, the garlic press, are all disgusting. Please treat your garlic with respect … don't put it through a press. I don't know what that junk is that squeezes out the end of those things, but it ain't garlic." — Anthony Bourdain.

Chopping garlic into small places gives you more of the garlic in a dish than a garlic press will provide.

Alton Brown has an excellent episode on garlic: Season 4, Episode 11 of Good Eats called In The Bulb of the Night (Garlic). Brown counsels an unseen Count Vlad of the virtues of using garlic in recipes.

Brown cooks up for Count Vlad the 40 Cloves and a Chicken dish and Vlad's Very Garlicky Greens.

Brown is one of the few who goes into the power of smaller pieces and celebrates the beauty of strong garlic into a dish, especially with a skeptical vampire in his midst.

He doesn't introduce one of his many scientific replicas to reinforce the magic of smaller pieces. Otherwise, the episode is a joy to those of us who love garlic more than most cooking shows.

The cautious count is definitely a metaphor for the other cooking shows that seem as afraid of garlic as Count Vlad is on the program.

There was a Match Game '75 episode that mentions garlic. Start at the 6:00 mark in the video for the question. There may be some questionable answers but this survived broadcast standards in 1975. Margaret, the contestant, gives garlic as her answer. She ends up winning by a soupçon of garlic, thanks to Patti Deutsch.

Back then, garlic had a bad reputation. We should know better now to get more people to appreciate what strong garlic can bring to a dish.

Garlic may be in season at your local farmers market. If you are going to experiment with garlic, buy local garlic.

Some of us with heartier palates want a strong blue cheese flavor in a dish, more umami such as fish sauce, and yes, a stronger garlic flavor. We love the cooking shows to be "now, with extra garlic."

photo credits: me; Food Network; Good Eats
video credit: Match Game Productions

The Original Farmers Market in Los Angeles is losing a famous neighbor in CBS

If you got a new job back in the day where people went physically to a work location, you might be excited if your new job was located next to a farmers market. For many years, the folks who worked at CBS in Los Angeles had such a luxury.

The Original Farmers Market is on West 3rd Street on Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles. CBS is at Beverly Blvd. (7800) with West 3rd Street being its southern border.

If you watched The Price Is Right, Match Game, The Carol Burnett Show, Tattletales, or any of the countless shows produced at CBS, you could have a sense of the history of that building.

Unfortunately, the Original Farmers Market is losing its most famous neighbor. CBS sold the building and is moving production of its shows out to Glendale in northeast Los Angeles.

The Original Farmers Market is not a traditional farmers market like you may visit on a regular basis. The location mostly has restaurants and a cute gourmet grocery store.

Still, the neighbors were a good fit. People in television who want to eat well. A farmers market that might get more business because of being located right next to a broadcast network.

CBS sold Television City to Los Angeles real estate investment company Hackman Capital Partners for $750 million in 2018. The company announced a $1.25 billion redevelopment of the facility, which is why the shows are leaving Television City. We don't know if those shows will return to West Hollywood, much less 7800 Beverly Blvd.

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In January 2019, I took the 720 bus from Santa Monica that went down Wilshire Boulevard to the Original Farmers Market. I got off at Fairfax, where the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures now stands. I walked 0.6 miles up Fairfax. People who live in Los Angeles would likely be shocked I walked that far. LA is very car-reliant.

While I was at the Original Farmers Market, someone mentioned how close we were to CBS. Since I walked in from the south, I hadn't noticed the large complex just to the north of the market. After a wonderful stay at the market, longer than I expected because it actually rains in Southern California, I walked north and crossed West 3rd Street to the southwest corner of what was CBS.

The tourists were more likely to notice a farmers market on their quest to see CBS where I approached the trip in the complete opposite vantage point. I was happy with my bonus. I remember Johnny Olson distinctly telling people if they wanted to be on The Price Is Right that the address was 7800 Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles. There I was at the place with all those shows I watched as a child.

I've seen Match Game reruns where they mentioned the nearby farmers market. They joked about mugging the audience members in the parking lot after the show. You can't see the parking lot from Fairfax Avenue.

I can imagine CBS stars shopping at the Original Farmers Market maybe in a simpler time when that was more prevalent. Fresh, local produce is usually incentive enough to go shopping but a celebrity sighting could boost your interest in going to a farmers market. Unfortunately, that is less likely now that those shows will be in Glendale and not West Hollywood.

We could look at the arrangement as a blessing for multiple decades to have the entities close to each other. Yet we are sad that the relationship will not continue. You can visit the Original Farmers Market at Third and Fairfax and imagine that Carol Burnett and Richard Dawson went there on a lunch break, imagining what they might have bought.

photo credits: me
map credit: Google