Toronto Garlic Festival

I've been to quite a few food festivals since I arrived. I think it's a well established fact that I love eating. And luckily for me there was a garlic festival at the weekend 20 minutes bus ride north of my house. I'm definitely one of those people who reads a recipe that involves garlic and quadraples the amount that's called for. Or more. You can never have enough garlic. You need to be able to smell me from 10 feet away when I've finished that meal.

It was held in a darling little community centre and stalls were set up outside in the garden as well as inside the building. When we arrived a man was playing piano in the garden and the live music gave it such a lovely atmosphere. Vendors were selling garlic and garlic flavoured everything. There was a garlic breath competition. There was even a class where they taught you how to paint a picture of garlic that my friend attended and I, much to my dismay, could not. We wandered about and tried aaaaaall the free samples. Because it is a truth universally known that free food is the best food (and dessert. Dessert is also the best food.)

I always seem to end up sitting beside people on the subway who could win this without eating any garlic

They were giving out free "garlic shots" so we partook of those. Basically they crushed a clove of garlic onto our wrists and we ate it raw and chewed on some lemon afterwards. Great for the immune system. Not so great for having close up and personal conversations with people afterwards. Then we got some garlic and gamay (white wine) popsicles that were super garlicy. By the time I left I could have incapacitated a small animal by breathing on them.

I never knew there were so many types of garlic until I started wandering around the stalls. After some perusing I picked up a jar of blueberry and garlic jelly that I had with some fried potatoes and onions for dinner and it was divine. This was definitely one of my favourite festivals. It was unique and quirky and a must for any die hard garlic fans like myself.