The Tomato - Vegetable or Fruit?

Rekindling the age-old debate, I weigh in with my reasoned opinion: veggie (though technically, a fruit). The tomato just goes well with other vegetables. Take V8 juice, for example. It's very much at home with the celery, the carrots, the lettuce, and the watercress. Wait a minute...is watercress a vegetable? How about beets? Parsley? (Can't remember the 8th component). To slam the lid on this middle school debate before it even gets started, let me present conclusive evidence that the tomato is a vegetable: Bob the Tomato on Veggie Tales. There we have it - case closed. http://www.eatcatomatoes.org/Consumer/Content.aspx?id=70

All summer long I have been absolutely nuts about tomatoes, specifically, tomato sandwiches. Can't get enough. Also, tomato soup. I am so glad not to be on dialysis. The first food to go when your kidneys fail is the tomato. You can have all the popcorn you like, but no tomatoes. I once visited a dialysis clinic and was amazed at what those folks go through just to stay alive. I hope I never have to go through that, and not just because of the tomato restriction. I know, I know, enough with the tomatoes already. Check the blog's title; just keeping it real. Oh, to be back in Spain during the tomato festivals, where the whole town would turn out to throw red ripe vegafruits at each other until it looked like a scene from a horror movie. Always great to see Thirdworlders wasting food. We couldn't throw a party like that in the US. The lawsuits, the complaints about food waste, the uptight community members who wouldn't understand the humor and uniqueness of it all, and then the lawsuits.

That's something we are lacking - community activities that allow the masses to get hysterically silly and let off steam. It would help keep us all sane, I think. Spain has another tradition. In Valencia in March, the Fallas http://www.fallas.com provide the opportunity for each neighborhood to construct larger-than-life massive wood and papiermache caricatures of political figures, trends, fashions, famous people, or whatever. They poke fun at whatever they like. Then at midnight at the end of a week of parties, every block sets fire to their falla, and voila! (I know that is the wrong word), the whole city is ablaze. Very cathartic. A great way to let off steam. It must do wonders for the overall mental health of the citizens, and we are in desparate need of better community events. Less Desparate Housewives. In the Valencia language it's called the Nit de Foc, or Night of Fire. I think we all need a night of fire. I need to go roast another tomato. http://www.tomato.org