Garlic

Garlic appears once in the Hebrew scriptures, as one of the foods of Egypt that Israel remembered with longing during the wilderness wanderings.

Egyptian Food Remembered in the Wilderness

When the people complained about the manna, their craving fixed on the produce of Egypt: "We remember the fish, which we ate in Egypt for nothing; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic" (Num 11:5). Garlic stands at the end of a list of common Egyptian staples — fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions — recalled as the cost-free fare of slavery and set against the daily provision of manna in the desert.