The pearly, pungent garlic is one versatile little vegetable. Not only does it add that special umami taste to stews, soups, and many other dishes, it's been used throughout thousands of years of history as a nourishing food (which, in Neolithic times, could be kept edible in a cool cave), a currency, and a magical medicine, healing everything from toothaches to dysentery and "opening the mouths of veins," according to the Greek physician Dioscorides. It's been used both as an aphrodisiac and as an inhibitor of sexual desire. It has shown up in literature, poetry, art, and architecture. And we all know that garlic repels vampires and other evil spirits. Garlic has seen the rise and fall of civilizations and has touched the lives of almost everyone who's ever lived, but for much of the past century many have dismissed it as vulgar. Its medicinal qualities were frowned upon as folk remedies more efficiently replaced by modern drugs. But today garlic is undergoing a renaissance.

Not only are more and more people cooking with garlic, they are also growing it in their backyards. There are so many new varieties--from Russian Red to German Brown to Kettle River Giant--that one need never be restricted to the ubiquitous Chinese garlic, which reigns supreme in supermarkets. And scientists are increasingly interested in garlic's antibiotic, antifungal, and antiparasitic qualities, as well as its potential as a treatment for cancer. In Pursuit of Garlic: An Intimate Look at a Divinely Odorous Bulbtells Liz Primeau's story of her love affair with garlic--which was ignited when her handsome teenaged boyfriend took her to an Italian restaurant for spaghetti served with heavenly garlic-laced meatballs, a sublime escape from the bland English dinners she was used to at home--and leads us on a tour of garlic's role in history, art, medicine, and science. Primeau invites us into her kitchen, where she begins every dinner hour with the pleasing ritual of chopping garlic, and shares the secret of the knife smack for removing garlic's tight jacket, as well as her favorite garlic-centered recipes. Primeau also discusses the many varieties of garlic and gives invaluable tips for growing your own. She visits garlic fairs, where she tries to track down France's elusive L'ail Rose, and she explores the issue of cheap Chinese garlic, which has invaded the North American market to the exclusion of local varieties. Packed with fascinating facts, practical advice about growing and cooking with garlic, and engaging stories about her personal experiences with garlic, In Pursuit of Garlicis a paean to this seductive, spellbinding, and delicious little vegetable.