Well, almost. National Garlic Day is April 19th and if you’ve ever taken a look at our menu, you’ll understand why we’re excited. Some of our most popular items here at Granfanally’s are our garlic knots and our garlic knot pizzas. But Salem restaurants and their patrons aren’t the only people who love garlic. Garlic has been around for thousands of years and has had several different uses. While we now know it as an ingredient guaranteed to add delicious flavor, it has previously been used for everything from magic to medicine.
Let’s take a look at everyone’s favorite vegetable.
Wait, it’s vegetable?
That’s right! Although we use it as a spice or a seasoning, garlic is technically a vegetable. It’s in the same family as onions and shallots. Because of its strong flavor, eating garlic on its own is almost unheard of. To be fair, the same goes for onions and shallots.
It’s at least 5000 years old.
I mean, we knew it was old, but not that old! Archaeologists have found evidence that garlic was used as far back as 5000 years ago in Egypt and India. When Howard Carter and his team excavated King Tut’s tomb in 1922, they discovered garlic included in the treasures buried with him. What it was doing there, we don’t know for sure, but we like to think King Tut wanted to take some garlic to the afterlife. Though maybe a laborer constructing the tomb dropped some of his lunch.
It’s medicinal.
Everyone knows that one mom who treated her kids’ ear infections with garlic oil. (Okay, that was my mom.) Turns out, she was on to something. Hippocrates discovered that garlic had antibiotic properties in the 5th century BC. In Eastern medicine, physicians prescribed garlic for digestive issues, respiratory problems, fatigue, and even depression. And of course, we can’t fail to mention that garlic will protect you from vampires. Probably. Either way, there’s a lot of history for you to chew on next time you order garlic knots from one of your favorite Salem restaurants.
It’s great on pizza from Salem restaurants.
Okay, we know you knew that one already. And we also know that you know we’re not talking about just any Salem restaurants. Our customers love our garlic knots and our garlic knot pizza. So let’s celebrate the long and varied history of garlic this April 19th with some delicious food from Granfanally’s.
