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Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

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Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#141

Post by specproc »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #94
specproc wrote: post #40

For those in the audience that have only ever eaten supermarket tomatoes, I'm sorry to say you've probably never really eaten a tomato. I live in a small, agricultural country and the article resonated. Over the last 10 years supermarkets and imported vegetables have become a much more important part of our national diet. It's such an important staple food. Historically very cheap (because widely grown) wildly divers…

> those in the audience that have only ever eaten supermarket tomatoes, I'm sorry to say you've probably never really eaten a tomato Plenty of supermarkets near farms or in urban cores have fresh heirloom tomatoes that put generic backyard ones to shame. Eating well doesn’t require continuous effort. Invest time in learning to source well. After that, it’s higher quality for the same amount of effort. (Of course if y…

This may be the case in parts of America.

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#142

Post by MichaelRo »

stevekemp wrote: post #124
jowdones wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it's depressing. My mother has a fairly large garden (some 1500 sqare meters) and takes quite some amount of labor to tend to it. So you work all spring and early summer only to see the crops wither away... makes you go on depression pills or just abandon the whole darn thing and buy Duch imported plastic vegetables. A bit unrelated, nowadays my mother was telling me a memory from her teenage years in the 60s. I…

This year I grew cucumbers on my balcony for the first time, and they were surprisingly low-effort. You do need to pollinate them, if you're too high for bees, or other insects. That aside I just watered them twice a day, except on days I forgot, and hoped for the best. Tomatoes are a bit hit and miss for me, hence trying something new this year. Usually I just grow strawberries and tomatoes at home. Other stuff gets…

I recall cucumbers are also prone to diseases but perhaps not as sensitive as tomatoes. One thing, if you don't water them diligently, they will grow bitter. Like quinine-level bitterness, enjoy eating them like that! :)

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#143

Post by Kosirich »

apavlinovic wrote: post #30

I am Croatian, and I know exactly what the article is referring to. So much that we decided to grow our own tomatoes this year. The imported junk we get from Netherlands is abysmal compared to anything grown locally, and the reality is that we want the good stuff for ourselves, not the tourists. We were very lucky to have a great harvest of cherry, monte carlo, and plum tomatoes this year, all of which serve a differ…

The thing is, you can now find good all year grown tomatoes in shops, just not in Croatian shops unfortunately. (speaking as a Croatian living in Denmark) In Denmark, even Lidl now has premium tomatoes that have good taste and smell. They are "pricy", so they are on average x3 the default tasteless, unripe ones. Considering they are properly ripe, part of the price is certainly just to cover much greater waste due to them going bad or getting bruised.

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#144

Post by kreyenborgi »

wafflemaker wrote: post #14

I'm Polish expat living in Norway. There are no tomatoes to be had in Norway... Just kidding. I'm actually kind of alright with the small ones (pearl tomatoes), any other don't taste like tomatoes. I believe, that the Norwegian people are so used to blandly tasting vegetables, that the worst and least ripe product parties are send to Norway. But my wife and her family are tomato people. Every time we visit Poland or…

Most of the ones in Norwegian supermarkets are imported crap seemingly produced by infusing a rubber ball with water, painting it red and then chemically removing all the flavor. But the locally produced ones from Wiig are good.

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#145

Post by haspok »

GOONIMMUNE wrote: post #90

My understanding is that this has less to do with the specific location the tomatoes are grown, and more to do with the distance from the point of consumption they are grown. If the tomatoes have to travel a long distance, they will be picked before ripe so that they are more hardy during transit. Unfortunately this significantly alters the taste for the worse. I don't really live in the U.S. anymore, but I used to p…

Your understanding is not wrong, but it is not what this article is really about. There are lots of kinds of tomatoes, and there is at least one type that grows in the Mediterranean, that the author describes. If you are not familiar with this kind of tomato, you would simply reject it if you saw it: it doesn't look good, it is too large, too mushy, doesn't seem ripe. But then if you accidentally taste it, you realize that looks are not everything... I eat this kind of stuff when I'm in Greece, I'm guessing the Croatian variety is a bit different, but you can get these tomatoes in Italy or Spain as well. I presume they are not easy to transport, hence what you usually get in your average European supermarket is a produce of the Netherlands...

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#146

Post by shkkmo »

j7ake wrote: post #86
em500 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I won't comment on the tomatoes, but as far as eggs are concerned, I'm skeptical that any claims about people being able to taste any diffence would hold up in a proper blind taste test. Conclusion from Serious Eats when they attempted to do that: It was pretty clear evidence that as far as eggs go, the mindset of the taster has far more bearing on the flavor of the egg than the egg itself. https://www.seriouseats.co…

Blind folded is not a proper taste test though. One uses all the senses when eating. For eggs the quality of the yolk is obvious by looking.

The meaning "blind" being used here is: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinded_experiment

It has nothing to to with depriving a participant of their sense of sight (except incidentally.)

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#147

Post by haspok »

foobarian wrote: post #122
imiric wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Croatia has horrible food Anthony Bourdain disagreed[1]: > This is world class food, this is world class wine, this is world class cheese. The next big thing is Croatia. This was in 2012, before Croatia joined the EU, but the culture of quality cuisine doesn't change in a decade. I can't speak about the prices, but I'm sure there are affordable restaurants and markets outside of touristy zones. Go to any popular pl…

There is a lot of quality perhaps. But two things I noticed about Croatia (and maybe wider Europe) food: 1) They don't know coffee. There is no equivalent of the American half&half creamer. 2) I find that there is not that much in the way of vegetables when eating out. I wonder if perhaps it's a cultural thing where you give your guest the best, i.e. most caloric/tasty food possible. The tavern/grill places are espec…

> American half&half creamer

You are joking, right? (The country that invented Starbucks might commit more serious crimes eventually. It turns out they already have.)

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#148

Post by FearNotDaniel »

em500 wrote: post #32
wafflemaker wrote: post #14

I'm Polish expat living in Norway. There are no tomatoes to be had in Norway... Just kidding. I'm actually kind of alright with the small ones (pearl tomatoes), any other don't taste like tomatoes. I believe, that the Norwegian people are so used to blandly tasting vegetables, that the worst and least ripe product parties are send to Norway. But my wife and her family are tomato people. Every time we visit Poland or…

I won't comment on the tomatoes, but as far as eggs are concerned, I'm skeptical that any claims about people being able to taste any diffence would hold up in a proper blind taste test. Conclusion from Serious Eats when they attempted to do that: It was pretty clear evidence that as far as eggs go, the mindset of the taster has far more bearing on the flavor of the egg than the egg itself. https://www.seriouseats.co…

Reminds me of the time I tricked my housemate years ago by drinking his fancy single malt scotch then replacing the contents with some really cheap Spanish whisky. He came home took a sip and said "aaah, you can't beat the taste of a fine Scottish single malt". The bottle and label were enough to convince him it tasted good.

(NB I'm not claiming there is no difference in flavour and quality - there absolutely is - but it's interesting how easily suggestible people are by the external appearance)

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#149

Post by TrackerFF »

wafflemaker wrote: post #14

I'm Polish expat living in Norway. There are no tomatoes to be had in Norway... Just kidding. I'm actually kind of alright with the small ones (pearl tomatoes), any other don't taste like tomatoes. I believe, that the Norwegian people are so used to blandly tasting vegetables, that the worst and least ripe product parties are send to Norway. But my wife and her family are tomato people. Every time we visit Poland or…

Norwegian here

Yeah, that's unfortunately the sad fact of living here, even more so the longer north you go - there's really no such thing as "in-season" veggies. Closest would be potatoes, and maybe some other things at the farmers markets.

We're all used to everything pretty much tasting like water. I was 22 years old the first time I tasted "real" tomatoes in southern Europe.

What we do have, though, is fresh seafood - if you live along the coast. But that's not for everyone. I usually buy freshly caught cod/haddock/pollock/halibut from the local fish market, as well as shrimp and king crab, which isn't horribly expensive when you live so close to the (beginning of the) supply chain.

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#150

Post by lm28469 »

317070 wrote: post #4
rini17 wrote: post #2

Oh my. Everyone who cares about tomatoes grows their own, supermarkets are for the rest. They are not demanding and will grow anywhere there's sun, including in pot on balcony.

Why is capitalism failing us here? Why do we need to grow our own?

> Why is capitalism failing us here?

It can't even bring housing and healthcare for all, tasty tomatoes is way down the list lmao

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