Society garlic

Society garlic (Tulbaghia violacea), also called wild garlic in South Africa and known by the Zulu name isihaqa, is a clumping perennial of the Cape whose slender grey-green leaves, tubular flower stalks and pretty lilac-pink blooms all carry a mild, sweet garlic flavour. It is not a true garlic — it belongs to the related genus Tulbaghia rather than to Allium — but every part smells and tastes garlicky when bruised, and cooks treat it as a gentle, ornamental-edible herb. In South African cooking and in edible-flower gardens worldwide the chopped leaves stand in for chives or garlic greens in salads, soups, potato dishes and cheese, while the star-shaped flowers are scattered over plates as a fragrant, faintly garlicky garnish. The common name is said to come from a belief that the plant's flavour was mild enough to eat in polite "society" without leaving the heavy garlic breath of the real thing.