food rant of the day
Oct. 18th, 2004 12:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pantryslutAt the farmer's market on Saturday, I was stocking up on the last tomatoes of the season. There was one stand at Ferry Plaza that had some gorgeous and tasty heirloom varieties. It also had a lovely display of mixed cherry tomatoes in baskets that seemed to attract the eye of a lot of other shoppers.
One by one, they came to the cash box and asked the guy running the stand, "Which ones are sweetest?"
Once was worth an eye roll. Two was grating. By the time I was done shopping, I had to step out of the tent and have a full-blown tantrum moment.
What makes a good tomato is not how sweet it is. A tomato is nothing but a sugar cube if it doesn't have that compensatory acid bite. But nobody ever comes up and asks, "which ones are the most acid" or "which ones have the most bite?"
The guy running the stand, to his credit, would occasionally try to steer his customers toward the green grape tomatoes. "They consistently come out on top in taste tests," he said, "though they're not the sweetest." But his customers would nod politely and then ask their single question again until he pointed out something else.
One by one, they came to the cash box and asked the guy running the stand, "Which ones are sweetest?"
Once was worth an eye roll. Two was grating. By the time I was done shopping, I had to step out of the tent and have a full-blown tantrum moment.
What makes a good tomato is not how sweet it is. A tomato is nothing but a sugar cube if it doesn't have that compensatory acid bite. But nobody ever comes up and asks, "which ones are the most acid" or "which ones have the most bite?"
The guy running the stand, to his credit, would occasionally try to steer his customers toward the green grape tomatoes. "They consistently come out on top in taste tests," he said, "though they're not the sweetest." But his customers would nod politely and then ask their single question again until he pointed out something else.
