Tomatoes!

[oyceter]

Er. So. I was going to try to post something large and momentous on depression.

Except, I just made myself a caprese salad for dinner, with heirloom tomatoes, and, wow. I get the heirloom tomato thing now. I mean, they taste like fruit! Obviously, this should not be a surprise to me, as they technically are fruit, but ripe tomatoes taste totally different from the vapid supermarket tomatoes. I realize I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but... I am amazed!

I mean, I don't dislike tomatoes. I eat them raw and cooked and in sauces and everything. They just haven't been a favorite of mine. It was the slightly watery sourness that always annoyed me, and the sometimes mealy texture. For some reason, I thought that non-supermarket tomatoes would taste more tomatoey, which in my head translated to more sour and marinara sauce like. But these are nearly fruity! I mean, it's totally different! They're sort of creamy, with just a faint hint of sweetness in the back, and they're not sour at all, and they just taste ripe.

Wow! And caprese salad makes so much more sense with these ripe, rich tasting tomatoes, because they make up the body of it while the mozzarella provides added texture and contrasting soft flavors, and the salt and pepper bring out everything further, and of course everything is made better with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I was evil and made fannishly try some too (haha, she is my newly-acquired "cooking" skills guinea pig) despite her nose wrinkles at tomatoes, and she likes it too!

Wow! I like tomatoes! Not just sort of tolerate or eat just because they're there, but I like them! They are good!

This is really, really cool ^_^.

Comments

[midnightsjane.livejournal.com]

You'll never be able to eat ordinary mass produced tomatoes again. I grow heirloom tomatoes every year on my patio, and the difference in taste is just astounding. I grew a new (to me) variety this year; it actually is a lovely chocolatey brownish red when it's ripe, and is rich and mellow tasting. I also have some big yellow brandywine tomatoes ripening on the plant as I speak. My favourite thing is a toasted tomato sandwich with mayonnaise (good quality of course) and leaves of freshly picked basil. yumyum.

[oyceter]

I know! These are so wonderful and rich-tasting! I must try the toasted tomato sandwich now!

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

All this weekend I was longing for this heirloom cherry tomato mix FreshDirect sometimes offers. Last time I had them I ate them like potato chips. Impossible to stop with just one.

[oyceter]

Mmmmmm heirloom cherry tomato mix! Must try to find this somehow.

[rydra_wong]

I get heirloom tomatoes on the vine from the local farmers' market, and so far I've never managed to hold on to any of them long enough to cook with, even to slice them for a salad - I just end up eating them like fruit.

*sighs*

*happily*

[oyceter]

They are so good! I ate two of them yesterday in the salad and am hungering for more now.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

This is why, when I am saying what my favorite foods are, I'm careful to specify fresh tomatoes from the garden: supermarket tomatoes need not apply. I'll still eat them, but they're not really at all the same thing.

We are in a lull between bunches of tomatoes, and since markgritter is home, we've eaten all but a little black plum tomato. In a few days we'll have bunches more, though. Mmmmmmm.

[oyceter]

Supermarket tomatoes really are an entirely different animal! I mean... I know everyone has said this, but tasting the heirlooms for the first time is still surprising! They're just so ripe and mellow!

Mmmmmmm.

[cychi.livejournal.com]

ahh sounds yummy.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Ah, but were the tomatoes depressed?

[oyceter]

They probably were after they got sliced to bits! Heh heh heh...

[rushthatspeaks.livejournal.com]

My household's Favorite Dinner Ever, which takes about three minutes, runs as follows: go to the store and pick up a fresh loaf of French bread. Many supermarkets make their own; get *that day's only* and *eat it the day you buy it*. Slice the bread, slice a lot of heirloom tomatoes, slice some mozzarella of the best quality you feel you can afford at the moment, wash some fresh basil and leave it on the table. Put on the table as well: salt, pepper, pesto (homemade or jar), a small dish of olive oil, and an open can of artichoke hearts if you like them. Then just use the bread as a base to mix and match-- put variable seasonings in the oil, dip the bread in the juice from the artichoke hearts, have pesto on the mozzarella or not. Tastes like a cross between caprese salad and bruschetta, serves a gajillion people and can be adjusted easily, and really, really filling with almost no prep time (although you need to trust me about buying the bread the same day you eat it). Several of my housemates add some form of cold meat to this, but I feel it's hard to find meat of a quality to match the other ingredients, although you can do pretty well with plain pepperoni. If you make sure that both bread and tomatoes are the best you can find, there just isn't a better homemade dinner.

[oyceter]

Ohh that sounds so good! I've got to try that some time!

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

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http://www.livejournal.com/users/eclipses/135756.html?view=1557580#t1557580

[oyceter]

Awwwwww!!!!! Ratties!