Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

croatiaweek.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 219 posts

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#181

Post by m000 »

brrt wrote: post #177
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…

I'm from the Netherlands and > 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. This hurts, and it's absolutely true. Makes me wonder why we spend so much in subsidies for the dutch tomato growers, if nobody actually likes eating them. For what it's worth, I get them in the supermarket, grown in spa…

To be fair Looye honey tomatoes are tasty (and expensive), although I find them a bit on the "artificial tasty" side. Tasty Toms are quite ok. Snack tomatoes (snoeptomaatjes) are a hit and miss.

While I admire these successes, the hard truth is that 90% of the Dutch tomato produce is landfill material. Overall tomato cultivation in the Netherlands feels like a vanity project to prove the farming prowess of the country.

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#182

Post by cainxinth »

I live in a suburb that used to be all farms. By some miracle, a single one survived and still operates, so I get fresh corn, tomatoes, and a few other things all summer long that is grown a mile away.

If it ever goes, I’ll be beside myself. It’s an invaluable, irreplaceable resource.

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#183

Post by novaRom »

adrianN wrote: post #161
throwaway2037 wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do tomatoes from Netherlands look so perfect, but taste so bland? I never understand it. I guess that they look perfect because they are grown in a green house, so no pests. Real question: Why do tomatoes from south Europe taste so much better? Is it the sunshine, or the soil? Or is the gene stock of the tomatoes? Or... everything?

Tomatoes in supermarkets are varieties that are optimized to survive transport and storage and are not harvested at peak ripeness.

But tomatoes from Spain and Morocco taste much better than those from Netherlands even if transport is significantly longer - how to explain it?

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#184

Post by novaRom »

LtWorf wrote: post #107
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…

Italian here. I agree that anything coming from NL is complete garbage.

Agree in general, although cheese (Old Amsterdam) and flowers (tulips) are fine for their price.

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#185

Post by mtts »

firebaze wrote: post #162
batushka5 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Netherlands produce really edible tomatos, just your suplier buys D category produce instead of A, which is expensive. I'm surprised that Italy or Spain can't match (maybe because of price) on my supermarket shelf. I don't challenge homegrown tomato - they are superior! But you have to survive winter somehow.

Please forgive me to disagree wholeheartedly and completely. After several years of "let's check again if tomatoes from Netherlands are still bad" I have completely stopped buying them altogether. They look great, smell good, and taste absolutely bland. Price does not make any distinction whatsoever, from my point of view. Or we only get the "cheap" stuff in all our shops here if the tomatoes are from Netherlands. An…

Sounds like you’re not in NL. I am, and for the past ten years or so new varieties of locally grown tomatoes have appeared that are markedly better. Not as good as fresh Puglian tomatoes during harvest season, but much, much better than the infamous water bombs the Netherlands is known for internationally.

Problem is, they’re somewhat expensive (or rather, not insanely cheap), and, likely for that reason, only available over locally. For some reason the rest of Europe insists on buying only the cheap flavorless water bombs.

You get what you pay for, I guess (said Puglian tomatoes, in season, aren’t cheap either).

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#186

Post by leni536 »

novaRom wrote: post #183
adrianN wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tomatoes in supermarkets are varieties that are optimized to survive transport and storage and are not harvested at peak ripeness.

But tomatoes from Spain and Morocco taste much better than those from Netherlands even if transport is significantly longer - how to explain it?

That's not my experience.

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#187

Post by mtts »

throwaway2037 wrote: post #157
FearNotDaniel wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 - bu…

I am shocked how good is a 10 USD bottle of whisky or Japanese shochu or wine these days. I think the science of making booze has improved so much in the last couple of decades.

This.

In my student days, thirty years ago, you would have to be careful buying wine from a supermarket as it could be borderline undrinkable.

Nowadays? Not so much. Even the cheapest swill is drinkable. Not really nice or flavorful, but certainly not disgusting.

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#188

Post by phito »

novaRom wrote: post #183
adrianN wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tomatoes in supermarkets are varieties that are optimized to survive transport and storage and are not harvested at peak ripeness.

But tomatoes from Spain and Morocco taste much better than those from Netherlands even if transport is significantly longer - how to explain it?

IME all store tomatoes taste bland because they were picked unripe for transport. That's why it's recommended to use canned tomatoes whenever you can, they are much tastier as they are picked at the right time and quickly canned.

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#189

Post by rdtsc »

stiray wrote: post #140
rdtsc wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely, I know someone, who knows someone doing exactly what you described. EU has been eating a lot of “locally grown” garlic actually grown in China and other similar things.

This is something else (faking country of origin, basically a very common scam) and actually not an issue in regards to toxicity as you cant import the china garlic into EU without checking it for forbidden chemicals. It is not locally grown, but it is not harmful as you couldn't import it in this case. Similar scam is getting a fish or squid in local Adriatic coast restaurants, where in most cases you are getting fr…

> actually not an issue in regards to toxicity as you cant import the china garlic

Well, import they did from what I heard. It was more of a smuggling operation than. The key was to smuggle small batches at a time and go through certain crossings where the officials are bribed. Then in EU it was presented as “locally” grown. But I definitely agree, buying produce at a local market you can’t always be sure. Growing stuff is hard and buying cheap stuff is too tempting. So some farmers found a “way”. Some more shady than others.

Re: Tomato nostalgia as I relive my Croatian island childhood

#190

Post by foobarian »

haspok wrote: post #147
foobarian wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.)

Starbucks coffee is an abomination too, don't get me wrong. But I do miss the half&half and could not find a substitute; I was kinda surprised because there was a great variety of milks, heavy/whipping/cooking creams as well as all sorts of non-dairy creamers both in powder and liquid form.
Post reply on HN