Garlic: The perfect complement.

Yesterday I sat down during the busier part of the lunch hour to eat my beets/squash/mango/rice/chicken next to a wiry-looking guy. A couple minutes into my meal, I notice that the guy is cutting something up ontop of his pile of food. I try and discreetly look over, but I guess not so discreetly. I see that he is slivering cloves of garlic on top of his food! He smiles and starts chattering: "Last week I was so sick...my throat was closed up so tightly I could barely swallow." He goes on about his week of garlic regimen and his theories about natural remedies. I nod and smile and ask a couple of questions and am thoroughly interested in his natural remedy involving slivering garlic onto his food.

He also gives me a delightfully unintentional compliment; part of the way through our exchange he says: "you know, when I sat down next to you, I thought you might be a foreigner." I smiled and said "oh, I am a foreigner!" He looks surprised and asks me where I'm from, and how long I've been here. Granted, we did only have a brief exchange in which I mostly expressed interest in his garlic-eating habits...