You Can Find A 400-Clove Garlic Stuffed Turkey At This California Restaurant

If you walk along lively Columbus Ave in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood, you'll encounter a stretch of sidewalk with black and white tiles, tables full of people sitting outside, and a thick aroma of garlic. This is the Stinking Rose, a temple to garlic that was opened after a trip to nearby Gilroy, where around 50% of the US's garlic is grown, for their famed garlic festival. This restaurant that uses 7 tons of garlic a year is doing what they do best this Thanksgiving – stuffing a turkey with 400 cloves of the delicious allium.

The meal starts with their classic bagna cauda, garlic roasted in olive oil and butter with a touch of anchovy. It comes in a dish above a burning candle with a hunk of bread and a knife. The rest is standard Thanksgiving fare: Stuffing, sweet potato mash, cranberry relish, and pumpkin pie. The standard menu is available as well. Hopefully, you spend your Thanksgiving with people you are close to, because after one sip of the restaurant's infamous gartini (a garlic martini), everyone's breath will be pushing the limits of your relationship.

If you don't find yourself in the Bay Area this Thanksgiving, but you want a heavy garlic experience, you can always make it yourself. Cut off some excess skin around the neck of your turkey, then, starting there, work your hands under the skin to loosen it around the bird. Place thinly sliced garlic just under the skin of your turkey before it goes in the oven. You can also place whole cloves all around the bottom of the pan.

To get more garlic in that fowl, stuff the inside full of cloves, onions, and some celery. Butter or oil up the cavity of your turkey, rub some salt and pepper in it, then stuff it full. Use whatever ratio you want, but if you're not planning any Thanksgiving kisses with anyone not sharing your turkey, you can go as hard on the garlic as you dare.

And check out our list of stuffing options. Almost any of these will work with the garlic doubled (or quintupled). You can also start your meal off with your own bagna cauda. Simply cook garlic low and slow in olive oil. Add anchovy and mash with a wooden spoon. Once that's all melded together, add butter. To eat it, just spread it on a crusty loaf of bread.