You Need a Special Garlic Spoon
With the exception of my fish spatula, almost all of my favorite spoons and lathes are made of wood. Wooden kitchen utensils are my favorite souvenir and I collect them in every country I travel to.
My favorite spoon is without a doubt the little olive tree beauty I bought in the south of France. I use it a lot, and this almost constant use has given the spoon a distinctly zesty flavor. To be honest: it smells like garlic, and it will always smell like garlic because the wood is porous.
There is nothing unexpected or terribly undesirable in this. The aroma is faint, but it is present, and just like on a wooden cutting board, an aromatic spoon can impart aroma (or at least aroma) to more delicate, less savory foods that you might not want garlic in. involved. Fortunately, the solution is simple: I only use this spoon for dishes containing garlic (and there are most of them) and for dishes in which a hint of garlic would be undesirable.
The idea is not entirely mine. I started using a similar strategy with my cutting boards after seeing Melissa Clarke’s food tour . Melissa has special garlic chopping boards that, like my spoon drawings, seem overly precious at first, but are actually quite smart:
Tasting or even sniffing garlic while you’re trying to enjoy a bite of fresh fruit is not a good thing, and having at least one cutting board designed for more odorous foods can protect you and your family from such an experience.
Having a garlic spoon means I never have to worry about butter and sugar together, only to find it smells like the spaghetti cooked last night. (Yes, using non-wood tools would obviate the need for this distinction, but wooden spoons and lathes work so well that I don’t think I can ever get away with them.)