The actual flavor, though, is quite singular. The main notes are of a rich earthiness that is faintly reminiscent of truffles. As the folks at Frieda’s note, there are also hints of balsamic vinegar, but overall, “it is deliciously difficult to describe.”

It’s so unique that I needed quite a bit of contemplating before I could decide how to eat the pair of bulbs sent my way. First I took the advice of Frieda’s diva Hazel Kelly and paired the black garlic with cream cheese and toast – specifically, crunchy baguette slices with cream cheese, tomatoes and a bit of oregano.

Full article at OC Register

Loblaw Co. is poised to add black garlic to the produce roster at some of its stores. Whole Foods marketing manager Jim Empey is also keen to offer it at its Yorkville and Oakville locations.

“People have really taken to it here,” says McEwan’s executive assistant Jordie McTavish. “Every bite has so much flavour.”

Read More at TheStar.com

”Customers were absolutely blown away by it,” Evans said.

Evans had read about black garlic and hounded his suppliers until they were able to get it for him.

”The flavor is just magical. It’s very mysterious, sort of like molasses, or roasted garlic or caramel-honey garlic,” Evans said.

Full article at Ohio.com

Looking for the hottest, hippest new food ingredient? Something that will impress your friends at your next dinner party?

Try black garlic.

As reported by Bonnie S. Benwick in theWashington Post, black garlic has gone from nonexistence to obscurity to trendy top-chef ingredient in a relatively short time.

Inventor Scott Kim of South Korea began experimenting with it in 2004. He wanted to market fermented or black garlic as a super food; his month-long heat-curing process creates a high concentration of disease-fighting antioxidants.

There’s more at foodchannel.com.

Full article at eldr.com.

The latest “it” ingredient is aged black garlic. It’s matte-black and gooey-soft with a chewyishy texture. It’s the new plaything of gourmet restaurant kitchens across the U.S.

Read full article here.

We were watching Iron Chef America the other day (Battle Redfish!) and noticed someone using black garlic, which Alton Brown informed us was a rare treat in kitchen stadium. The judges were certainly excited when they tasted it. The Le Bernadin episode of this season’s Top Chef New York also mentioned black garlic. And The Washington Post’s Bonnie Benwick featured it as the new ‘it’ ingredient in her article on February 24th. So what’s all the fuss about? What the heck is black garlic?

More at chicagoist.

Inventor Scott Kim began developing the product in South Korea in 2004. His goal originally was to market aged or fermented black garlic as a super-food: Its patented, month-long heat-curing process creates a high level of antioxidants and a natural cancer-preventing compound. Forms of fermented garlic have long been eaten for health reasons in Korea and Japan.

Kim formed a company called Black Garlic Inc. last year, bringing on John Yi, a longtime garlic producer. Based in Hayward, Calif., the company is the sole manufacturer and supplier in the United States. Heads of garlic grown on Jeju Island, South Korea, are used, but Kim plans to process California-grown garlic soon as well.

A year before Kim’s company was up and running, Bruce Hill, executive chef and part-owner of Bix restaurant in San Francisco, tried black garlic for the first time in Kyoto, Japan. A friend and fellow chef piped beads of black garlic paste around a composed vegetable and chicken salad and used it in a tapenade.

Hill, a Bethesda native who also co-owns Picco restaurant in Larkspur, Calif., loved the ingredient’s complexity. “I’d heard of it before,” he says. “It lends itself to Mediterranean flavors . . . things like roasted peppers and olives.”

Tastewise, black garlic offers a slightly sweet, licorice twist and a chewy texture. Its garlic flavor and aroma are present but diminished.

Hill tracked down a supplier, who happened to be Kim. “I think we were the first to use it” culinarily in the area, the chef says. Other chefs picked up on it quickly; Matthias Merges, executive chef at Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago, tagged it as one of his top five food finds in the December 2008 issue of Restaurant News, a trade publication. Black garlic became a big-hit item for Le Sanctuaire.com, an upscale gourmet foods purveyor, and was sold by specialty trade purveyors such as Terra Spice Co. and Italco. The famous New York seafood restaurant Le Bernardin uses it in a spiced monkfish dish that was highlighted on a recent episode of Bravo’s “Top Chef: New York.” Jeremy Fox, executive chef at Ubuntu in Napa, drizzles drops of pureed black garlic on his fingerling potato salad (see recipe on this page).

Original article here.