Gilroy is a California town that I've thought of as garlic central for as long as I can remember. Even though the self-dubbed garlic capital will hold its annual Garlic Festival this year complete with a Garlic Idol singing contest, there's not much to celebrate these days in the land of the stinking rose.California growers have been grappling with rising imports of Chinese garlic since the early 90s. Last year garlic from China outsold garlic from California. Growers in California hope recent safety concerns about Chinese imports will spur shoppers to buy their bulbs instead of the imported ones. They're also banking on taste. After a blind taste test Executive Chef Bernard Guillas of the Marine Room restaurant in San Diego raved "Wow! California garlic rocks!" It's a view shared by my brother, Tony, who prefers to grow his own in Orinda, Calif., rather than buy supermarket garlic. Blogger Musafir says he started seeing Chinese garlic at all his local supermarkets and described it as flavorless. He doesn't take such a rosy view on the Chinese garlic issue: he called his post "Death Knell for Gilroy Garlic."
