#i avoided even looking up recipes for kafta for years because i knew it had garlic

[vashti-lives]

🔥

(topic: drink, or food, or both!)

oh boy. i have a big one! oof people aren't gonna like this.

right now american cooking is way too dependent on garlic. especially restaurants. i know all you garlic lovers out there are currently outraged but look! i do not actually think it is to your benefit! i am allergic to garlic and the amount of restaurants where i cannot eat anything on the menu but steak with no fixings unless someone alters the way they prepare food is ridiculous. and like, when it's an Indian place or something i get it! but when i go to a basic pub food style restaurant and cannot have a cheeseburger because the ground beef has a seasoning with garlic powder in it there is something wrong.

at very minimum their flavor palate is too narrow and frankly, when they've got garlic in the hamburger and garlic in the butter and mayo and garlic in all the dipping sauces and in all the salad dressings and the in the seasoning they put on the french fries i start to wonder... is it really that garlic is enhancing every one of these things? or is it that... they're trying to disguise lower quality ingredients with a strongly flavored additive so they can charge more?

and if you're not allergic to garlic you're never going to notice this but it's there! the amount of times i have asked if a cheeseburger has garlic, had a waiter look at me like i'm crazy and then come back five minutes later to tell me in a very baffled tone of voice that yes there is garlic in the cheeseburger is WILD. a cheeseburger is my baseline ask because 1) i like them and 2) if there's garlic in the burger there will be garlic in basically every other item on the menu except maybe like, sweet breakfast for dinner options like french toast.

it's notable that NEVER ONCE have i been told, oh there's garlic seasoning in the ground beef but we can just make it without. it's never happened. because these resturants are all buying pre-seasoned beef patties, probably because it's cheaper. if they weren't it would be super easy to make me a cheeseburger without garlic!

so yeah, i think A LOT of restaurants are tricking people into paying too much for cheap food by adding garlic where garlic doesn't need to be.