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Introduction

It makes our food tasty and our breath smelly, but what are some of the other uses of garlic...? Apart from warding off vampires, of course! Neil and Beth discuss this and teach you some new vocabulary.

This week's question

Which of the following varieties of garlic grew in the former USSR?

a) rocambole
b) fire
c) riesig

Listen to the programme to hear the answer.

Vocabulary

versatile
having many different uses or purposes
 
it's unimaginable
used to say that something is difficult to imagine because it's so good, bad, large, etc
 
ailment
illness or minor health problem
 
aphrodisiac
food or drink believed to increase sexual desire
 
abstain (from something)
choose not to do something
 
stimulate
encourage or cause to grow, develop or become active

TRANSCRIPT

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript. 

Neil
Hello, this is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Neil.
 
Beth
And I'm Beth. It smells delicious sizzling in oil and it's great for keeping vampires away, but don't eat it on a first date! I'm talking, of course, about garlic. Neil, do you like garlic?
 
Neil
Oh yes, I love garlic. I had a very garlicky meal last night.
 
Beth
Mmm, I know – I can smell it from here! Here is Jason Chan, an Australian chef who specialises in Asian cuisine, and Poul Erik Jensen, a Danish chef living in France, talking about their love of garlic to BBC World Service programme, The Food Chain:
 
Jason Chan
I love garlic because it's a versatile ingredient that can be used for cooking and offers various health benefits.
 
Poul Erik Jensen
We use it a lot and so from stocks to soups – and in vegetable dishes, meat dishes – there's very certain a clove of garlic in somewhere. Yeah, it's unimaginable not using garlic.
 
Neil
Jason loves garlic because it's versatile, meaning it can be used in many different ways. And Poul thinks cooking without garlic is unimaginable, meaning it's difficult to imagine because it would be so bad.
 
Beth
Love garlic or hate it, in this episode we'll be finding out more about this versatile, strong-smelling food. And, as usual, we'll be learning some useful new words and phrases as well.
 
Neil
And remember – you can find all the vocabulary from this episode on our website, bbclearningenglish.com. Now, Beth, I have a question for you. It's a little-known fact that of the 600 varieties of garlic, many grew only in the former Soviet Union and were unavailable in the West until the fall of communism in the 1990s. So, which of the following varieties of garlic grew in the former USSR? Is it:
 
a)    rocambole,
b)    fire, or
c)    riesig?
 
Beth
Oh, I have no idea. I'm going to guess fire.
 
Neil
OK. We'll find out if you're right at the end of the programme. Garlic is much more than just a cooking ingredient. For centuries, garlic was an important food throughout ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, as well as India and China. It was the Roman Empire that brought garlic to European countries like France. And everywhere garlic grew, it was praised for its health-giving powers.
 
Beth
Here, BBC presenter Rumella Dasgupta asks author and garlic expert Robin Cherry about garlic's medicinal uses, on BBC World Service's The Food Chain:
 
Rumella Dasgupta
And what kind of illnesses or conditions would they have treated, for instance?
 
Robin Cherry
Everything from cancer, scurvy, the plague, respiratory ailments… it was used as an aphrodisiac.
 
Neil
Garlic was used to treat respiratory ailments. An ailment is another word for an illness or minor health problem, so a respiratory ailment is an illness of the lungs.
 
Beth
In Ancient Greece, garlic was also used as an aphrodisiac – a food or drink believed to increase sexual desire. But interestingly, this was the same reason why some cultures avoided eating garlic altogether, including a religious group from India called Jains.
 
Neil
Yes, Jainism is an ancient Indian religion, like Hinduism and Buddhism, based on the idea of 'ahimsa', or non-violence. But unlike many Hindus and Buddhists, Jains' definition of non-violence includes plants and vegetables. Jains don't eat garlic because uprooting the plant kills both it and the soil ecosystem it grows in.
 
Beth
Here's Sonal Ved, a Mumbai-based cooking-show host and author of many books on Indian cuisine, explaining another reason why Jains avoid garlic to BBC World Service programme, The Food Chain:
 
Sonal Ved
According to Hinduism also, garlic is considered a food which is called a 'tamasic' food. It is believed to stimulate desire, passion, aggression. And that's why they abstain from eating those kinds of food: because it is believed to impact your spiritual growth and also your mental clarity.
 
Beth
Jains abstain from eating garlic. If you abstain from doing something, you choose not to do it. For example, you might abstain from tobacco or alcohol because you know they're bad for your health.
 
Neil
Like the Ancient Greeks, Jains believe that garlic stimulates sexual desire. The verb to stimulate means encourage it or cause it to develop and grow.
 
Beth
Modern medicine has confirmed some of these ancient beliefs about the health benefits of garlic, including reduced blood pressure and better gut health. OK Neil, isn't it time you revealed the answer to your question?
 
Neil
Yes, Beth. I asked you which variety of garlic grew in the former USSR.
 
Beth
And I said fire. Was I right?
 
Neil
You were absolutely correct.
 
Beth
Yay!
 
Neil
Fire or Georgian fire is a hot, white garlic from the Republic of Georgia in the former Soviet Union. OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned, starting with versatile, an adjective meaning to have many different purposes or uses.
 
Beth
The phrase, it's unimaginable is used to say that something is difficult to imagine because it would be so good or so bad.
 
Neil
An ailment is an illness or health problem.
 
Beth
An aphrodisiac is a food or drink believed to increase sexual desire.
 
Neil
If you abstain from something, you choose not to do it.
 
Beth
And finally, to stimulate means to encourage something or cause it to grow. Once again, our six minutes are up. If you've enjoyed this episode then head over to our website, bbclearningenglish.com, where you'll find a quiz and worksheet to practise the vocabulary you've learnt. See you again soon. But for now, it's goodbye!
 
Neil
Goodbye!

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