Sweet English Garlic

We moved in Walla Walla, Washington in June of 1995 from Portland, Oregon. We made many trips between Walla Walla and Portland during the 2 years that we lived there. We made many stops at Cousin's Restaurant in The Dalles, Oregon. They had a salad that I really liked and usually ordered every time we stopped for a meal. It was the salad dressing that I thought really made the salad so good. I asked our server what the name of the dressing was and she said it was their house dressing and it was called Sweet English Garlic. It sounded great, but I wasn't sure where you would ever find english garlic. So I settled for enjoying it at their restaurant.

When we moved away from Walla Walla and headed for Southern California, I knew that I wouldn't be eating there in the near future, so I asked our server if they gave out their recipe for the salad dressing. She talked to the head cook who told her to get my address and he would try to get the recipe cut down to a workable amount and send it to me. To be honest, I didn't think that would ever happen. Several months later, I actually received an envelope from Cousin's and I couldn't believe it. The only problem, the recipe made a gallon of dressing. At that time, I was working about 60 hours a week and I wasn't cooking much so I didn't take the time to try to reduce that recipe to a smaller quantity. I was still amazed that the chef had taken the time to write me a note and had written out the recipe for me so I sent him a note thanking him for taking the time to do that.

A few months later, I got another envelope in the mail from Cousin's Restaurant. The chef had sent me another personalized letter with with a recipe that made about a pound of dressing, a more reasonable amount. Again I sent him a note, thanking him for taking the time to get this to me. My only disappointment was that the only garlic was a 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder. So much for the exotic "sweet english garlic" that I was expecting to order from some far away place.

The bottom line, Cousin's is a great place to eat and the employees are very helpful and friendly.  As long as you don't mind being called "Cousin" by everyone that works there, it's a great restaurant.