VII: Garlic
How garlic created Korea.
Good morning. Today is septidi, the 27th of Messidor, Year CCXXXI. We celebrate l'ail, a bulb that every cook must keep in abundance.
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Garlic breath (not to mention its dastardly cousin, garlic sweat) happens when our body essentially copies and uses garlic's defense mechanisms. Like many plants in this family – onions, leeks, shallots – garlic packs a great deal of sulfuric compounds into its "bloodstream" as an insect repellant. Garlic's particular compound is known as allicin, and our body doesn't fully digest it. Instead, the allicin seeps into our actual bloodstream as allyl methyl sulfide, circulating through our body with the same sulfuric scent. This infusion of blood was intuitively known by people long before modern medicine, which is one reason garlic is associated with repelling blood-sucking vampires. (You're supposed to eat it, dummies. No idea where the ridiculous garlic necklace came from.) If you've ever wondered why eating a Big Mac can make you smell like a Big Mac for a long time after, it's because McDonald's puts a lot of garlic and onion powder into their meat patties.
According to legend, the Korean people originated a little more than 4,300 years ago thanks to garlic.
