Garlic

The U.S. is outsourcing its food supply. Imports have nearly doubled since 2001, and the big growth is not in foods that don't grow here - coffee, for instance, or bananas - but in crops that are American staples. The change raises questions about food safety, and about the wisdom of entrusting the nation's food security to overseas producers. Consider garlic. The U.S. is one of the world's major garlic growers. It is also an important exporter of garlic. Yet American imports of garlic have been skyrocketing.

The smell of garlic doesn't so much tickle your nose when you walk into Zella's as march on over and give you a big bear hug. Most of the entrees in this nifty little pizza-and-calzone joint start with the basic Italian comfort-food ingredients of tomato sauce, cheese and dough, but then they're loaded with intensely flavorful ingredients such as caramelized onions, feta cheese, prosciutto and, of course, garlic. -- Poor:]

The inspiration for this main course comes from a fabulous dish I sampled in Paris last month in a neighborhood restaurant. When I couldn't decide what to choose, our waiter recommended the 7-hour roasted lamb. Slowly roasted in the oven until fork tender, the lamb was delectable, but it was the simple, elegant presentation of the entree that caught my eye. Set in the center of the plate on a bed of pureed eggplant, the meat was surrounded by a garland of roasted cherry tomatoes and roasted garlic cloves.

I knew I was in for an adventure when I tried a dish from The Whole Beast cookbook by Fergus Henderson. Henderson is a London chef who specializes in what he calls "nose to tail" dishes. He cooks the parts of animals that, as he puts it in his book, "are often forgotten and sadly discarded in today's kitchen." Those include pig's head and tails, pigeon and duck hearts. He serves these dishes at St. John, his London restaurant. Cookbooks written by chefs often take what I call a creative approach to recipes.

Alonso's Ryleigh's Oyster 36 E. Cross St., Baltimore -- 410-539-2093 Hours --11 a.m.-2 a.m. daily Restaurant's estimate --10 minutes Ready in --19 minutes Here, a half-pound burger costs $9.45 and comes topped with melted aged cheddar cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. The order took a while, but the side of house-made garlic-and-rosemary potato chips started to dissolve as soon as they hit the tongue. Know of a good carryout place? Let us hear about it. Write to sam.sessa@baltsun.com.

Fatherhood is full of surprises: some pleasant, some not. For me, a pleasing part of being a dad nowadays is fielding questions about food and drink from our twentysomething sons. At this stage of the game, getting any inquiring phone call from your offspring that does not involve the phrases "bail money" or "car trouble" is heartening. It means they think you still might know something. The boys phone their mother if they need an answer about issues involving groceries or baking. But if fire or ice - that is, grilled foods or chilled beverages - is involved, they ring me. And so, I am cheered to take a Saturday-night cell-phone call from a kid reading me the wine labels of the offerings at a grocery store in Alabama, and to steer him toward a zinfandel.

Pounds of butter, gallons of oil and crates of garlic surely get consumed each night at Olive Tree, a gut-busting Italian restaurant near the Holiday Inn in Aberdeen. The restaurant, owned by Nick Hapsis, who also owns the Holiday Inn as well as Olive Tree restaurants in Pikesville and Glen Burnie, serves most of its pastas topped with cream sauces, most of its seafood floating in butter and most of its meat topped with garlic butter or marinara and mozzarella. Poor:]

EVENTS Cancer benefit -- Graul's Food Markets will donate 5 percent of the store's profits April 18 and April 20 to the American Cancer Society and feature prizes and entertainment April 18 at the Hereford and St. Michaels locations, and April 20 at the Mays Chapel, Ruxton and Annapolis locations. Also at Graul's, there will be tastings of Grandma's Coffee Cake 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 18 in Hereford, 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. April 19 in Ruxton and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. April 19 in Mays Chapel. Free.

Not only is a whole fish more beautiful to serve than a fillet (once you get past that silly "Eek! It looks like a fish!" reaction - what are you, in fifth grade?), it tastes better too. Just like any other meat cooked on the bone, fish cooked in the round is moister and more flavorful. Even better, it's incredibly flexible. You can use almost any cooking technique you can think of, and you'll get a very different dish each time. Wild striped bass and rockfish work fine in this recipe.

What it is -- A new flatbread pizza from Stouffer's What we like about it --We tried a basil- and parmesan-seasoned flatbread and found it crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and not too greasy. There's also chicken, bacon and spinach on basil and garlic flatbread; steak fajita on smoked chipotle flatbread; and shrimp-roasted garlic on herb flatbread. What it costs --$3.99 for one flatbread Where to buy --Available at grocery stores Per flatbread --550 calories, 23 grams fat, 9 grams saturated fat, 66 grams carbohydrate, 22 grams protein, 4 grams fiber, 40 milligrams cholesterol, 860 milligrams sodium