Roasted garlic = A Taste of Perfection

At Bistro 110, a chic French-American eatery in downtown Chicago, roasted garlic is served alongside fresh, warm bread and butter even before the waiter takes your drink order. It was the very first place I encountered roasted garlic. It was delicious! Roasting the garlic totally took away the heat factor but left a more sedate and tasty garlicky flavor. Warm, fresh, buttered bread is the perfect canvas for such a distinctive taste. It is obviously very popular at Bistro 110 because they have been printing the recipe for roasted garlic on a 4-by-6 card that they give out to every customer. Even though it's very simple, I don't know why I never got around to it sooner!

My interest in it is finally rekindled because: (1) I have some garlic lying around, and (2) I happened to see a recipe for roasted garlic in some paper that I was reading. So, here's how you go around making this heavenly treat! All you need are some foil, good quality (extra virgin, preferably) olive oil and garlic.


Preheat the oven to 400 deg. F. Meanwhile, chop of the top part of the garlic to reveal the cloves.

Tear of a length of aluminium foil enough to loosely warp the garlic. Place the garlic on the aluminium foil and drizzle the cloves with some olive oil, before loosely wrapping the garlic with the foil.

Put in pre-heated oven and let roast for 50 minutes to an hour. During this time, your house will smell like the kitchen of an Italian grandmother and attract hungry people like bees to honey! And voila, behold the sheer perfection!


I didn't have good bread around the house (only a pathetic loaf of generic brand rye bread). Fortunately, there's an Italian eatery in my apartment building where I immediately trudged my way to for a loaf of good Italian bread. I toasted a few slices to serve alongside the roasted garlic as an appetizer.

Now this is what a taste of perfection looks like. It's so simple that anyone should try it at least once. I can totally assure that you WILL be hooked because I am!

Happiness is ...

... a tall glass of milk with chocolate chip cookies.

Where in the world is Maria?

It sure has been a crazy past few months for me! 2 separate weekends in Boston and another one in Las Vegas. I love to travel but it does get a bit tiring after a while, especially when there's so much work waiting for me in Chicago. My immune system got compromised a bit and I ended up with a mild cold/cough combo while in LV.

But anywayz, the main reason I haven't updated for so long is because I misplaced the USB wire for my digital camera. Thus I haven't been able to upload my most recent adventures to share here. The school year is winding down now (thank God!) and with a little bit more time, I really hope my USB wire surfaces otherwise I'd just cry a river!

Unfortunate are the students whom I'm a teacher (TA) to...

Busy as bee for the past few weeks! It includes working in lab, coming in on weekends for the second job, visiting my sister in Boston over Easter, preparing review notes for a class that I'm a TA for, etc. The list goes on and on and on...

Enough complaining! Amongst this busy-ness, I've been able to squeeze in little joys. I made pretzels (again) this past weekend. We also walked around downtown, basking in the temporary sun and warmth for a few hours on Sunday. I was planning to make macarons (or French-style macaroons) but didn't have a key ingredient: almond flour, so that'll have to wait until at least this weekend.

But, even my TA experience is enjoyable. It pays just ok and some of the lecturers have been ... let's just say, difficult. It's a bit of a pain having to xerox copies of notes (what am I, a secretary?). However, I really enjoy interacting with the students. People may ridicule the undergrads here for being sombre, weird, strange, bookish or even (gasp!) nerds, but it's quite fun for the teacher (or TA, in this case) to know that our effort in sharing knowledge isn't wasted. The students in my class actually participate and ask thoughtful questions! I mean, it makes me feel crappy when I can't answer them (after all, Science is an evolving process and I can't know everything), but it's pretty cool to at least know that the students are paying attention and using their brains!

I initially took on this job to bolster my (limited) presentation/public speaking abilities. I'm quite shy in a large group of relatively unfamiliar people but I know that if I were to continue on the academic research pathway, I will have to give talks in front of people I don't know all the time. I must say that I'm getting better at not being nervous before a talk, but I still have lots of work in terms of poise, style and organization. Also, I may know a bit about insulin resistance/diabetes/obesity but having to explain it to beginners/younger students who haven't had the exposure I did is a challenge I like. After all, there are always going to be doubters and it's part of a scientist's job to engage the interest of the non-scientist public. Although I never thought of going into teaching as a career, it's definitely an open option if the whole academic research schlepp doesn't work out. It's a lot of behind-the-scenes work but now I kind of understand why some people actually enjoy it.

That's all my rambling for now but I'll be back with an update on my awesome Boston trip! Ciao!