I wouldn't give up...

[Elawin]

Hmm, have you ever been to England or Ireland?

I have had "Italian" food in both, and while most was very good, often exceptional, I was also introduced to the worst versions of tomato sauce that would make a nonna cry and throw things at you if you were the cook.

Unless you go to an independent family run Italian (usually Sicilian) restaurant, or make it yourself of course

 

[Elawin]

You forget I am rather ancient and pizza, garlicky tomato sauce and Asian foods were not something that a working class Southern British kid from the suburbs would have eaten in the 50's and 60's. Pizza places as such did not exist and there was no pizza on sale in any shop, nor any ready made pasta sauces. The only pasta I knew of was macaroni (for puddings) and tins of Heinz spaghetti. No doubt there were Italian restaurants in cities and particularly London which would have used garlic and maybe served pizza and as you say, there were Asian restaurants. But my family never went to restaurants to eat in any case.

Probably the first garlic I had was when I first went to an Indian restaurant for a curry after I left home at 18.

Garlic has been in use in the UK for hundreds of years, especially for medicinal uses. I bet you had some horrible medicine that had it in. We often had it - we regularly had curry in our house. (We probably even had it growing out in the garden; Mum and Dad grew most things.) We used to have pasta too, and not the tinned stuff. I was probably about 14 when I started cooking it myself, with eggs and home made tomato sauce. I must admit though that the first time I had pizza was in 1965 in Rimini.

 

[rascal]

I never had garlic until I started going to restaurants in the 70s. My grandkids have been bought up with garlic bread and they absolutely love it, after yesterday's starter of bread, the youngest grandson was still asking for garlic bread when having dessert,lol. I do it with chilly sauce and cheese.

Russ