Heirloom tomatoes

[valis2]

Let me sum up my attraction to food by saying this:

There are two vague categories of food. I am in between the two categories. I do love to shop at gourmet stores, and I like nice, fresh food and high-quality food. But I eat Lipton packaged noodles, too. So I kind of live in both the gourmet world and the non-gourmet world.

My friend in WI (and Alton Brown) have shown me the light regarding tomatoes, however.

My sister and my boss love this certain restaurant, and we go there for lunch occasionally. It's on the upscale side. The cheapest lunch item is $8. I'm not much into the restaurant simply because I don't want to get a full, huge, $14 lunch, and the only items that sound interesting to me are $14. Usually I get a burger there, and it's not that great. So yesterday we went there, and I got a burger, and they mentioned that the side dish of the day was heirloom tomatoes. I nearly went nuts. I love heirloom tomatoes. Massively. I eat at least ten pounds of them each fall, and I buy them at the gourmet grocery store/farmers' market, and they're awesome.

So I order them, and my sister goes on enthusiastically about how great it is. I wonder, though, because they apparently are served with a vinaigrette. It looked promising. There were five slices of tomatoes, and two of them were from one of my favorite heirloom tomatoes, the giant yellow/pink variety. But then I thought, they can't possibly get this right.

I was completely right. It was horrid. The vinaigrette might as well have been pure vinegar; it was insanely sharp. Any taste the tomatoes might have had was completely overpowered by the vinaigrette. And the tomatoes were ice cold. Right out of the industrial fridge.

Let me explain a little about heirloom tomatoes. They're older varieties of tomatoes that have (generally) not been bred over and over again to increase production, resist bugs, or live on less water. Most people would be surprised to hear that there are six shapes of tomatoes, and that tomatoes come in a near rainbow of colors. Yellow, orange, green, red, pink, purple...plus all of the striped varieties. The great thing about heirlooms? Taste! Some of them are so deliciously sweet I could eat them like eating an apple. I always disliked tomatoes until I met heirloom tomatoes. They're fabulous. Especially the pink ones...very sweet. Most supermarket tomatoes are grown and picked while they're green. Even though they are forcefully ripened, you are, in essence, eating unripe tomatoes every time you grab that red beefsteak at a grocery store.

And that stuff about being refrigerated? Alton Brown did a show and confirmed what my friend in WI said: Never, ever put your tomatoes in the fridge! Once a tomato hits 50-60 degrees F, the chemical compound within it responsible for most of the flavor breaks down, and you're left with an unripe, flavorless tomato. I've said this before to people, and they freak. "They'll go bad!" No, not really. I've had tomatoes last an entire week on the counter. I don't think they last much longer in the fridge, and they taste worse. I'm serious.

Okay, enough about the tomatoes. I have to go to work.

Comments

[pen-and-umbra.livejournal.com]

Ruining heirloom tomatoes (cold?! wtf?) is a crime in need of a severe punishment. Say, being stabbed in the face. Repeatedly.

...or so it would be in a perfect world. And now you've made me all hungry. ;)

[valis2.livejournal.com]

It was awful. And I forgot to mention that one of them was overripe and mealy. Ugh.

I wish I had time tomorrow to go to the Farmers' Market, but then again, the Tomato Lady is kind of random, so who knows if she'd be there or not.

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

My own personal favourite foodie guru, Nigel Slater, has just published a book (which is on my Christmas list) of a year of what he bought, cooked and ate.

He's a passionate tub thumper for seasonal food, and quality ingredients, which are not messed about with, but just cooked to enhance their niceness.

The Observer newspaper recently featured an extract from his new book, and one part describes his eating tomatoes for lunch which he had picked from his garden. He said the best were straight off the vine, in September when they've had the sun on them for several months. If they are a good variety and ripe, they need nothing added, and should just be eaten like apples. They are fruit, in any case.

I never buy cheap tomatoes, they are vile. So instead, I overspend on fussy varieties, which are three times the price. The question is, if you can eat them raw, and undressed, they are worth the money.

Slightly substandard ones (still better than the mass produced horrors) are nicest roasted in the oven with a few cloves of garlic and extra virgin olive oil. Eat with masses of really good bread. It's a feast.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I never buy cheap tomatoes, they are vile. So instead, I overspend on fussy varieties, which are three times the price. The question is, if you can eat them raw, and undressed, they are worth the money.

You have hit the nail on the head, as usual.

I love buying heirlooms. During Aug/Sept I eat the following salad at least three times a week:

slices or chunks of heirlooms
chunks of avocado
goat cheese
homemade seasoning salt (basil & sea salt)
slightly sweet blush wine vinaigrette
sometimes chopped up pieces of these fabulous hearty white onions from the farmers' market

And during off season the gourmet store often has heirlooms in stock. I'm so spoiled. When I can't have heirlooms during the off-season, I buy the smallest tomato I can, usually grape tomatoes. They're not bad, usually.

Oh, I am absolutely going to try roasting them with garlic & olive oil! Sounds lovely. Thank you!

[cactus-wren.livejournal.com]

Never, ever put your tomatoes in the fridge!

I never knew that. I'd love to try leaving them out, but I know what would happen: I'd leave them out, and my mother-in-law (who lives with us, God help me) would come along and go "Who left these out?" and put them in the fridge. Then I'd sigh and take them out. Then she'd put them back in again. This would go on for a few days til I tell her to leave them OUT and why, and she'd tell me it's the stupidest thing she's ever heard. Then I'd have to try and restrain myself from bashing her with every last tomato.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

You know, I had nearly the EXACT same experience with my own mom, when I was still living at home. Over and over again I'd find gross, squishy tomatoes in the crisper. And she'd take the tomatoes *I* bought and put them in the crisper too. argh!

You poor, poor dear!

[gillieweed.livejournal.com]

Brown paper bag.
By the time your fridge-elf figured out there were 'maters in there "going bad" you'd have eaten them!

[whitemunin.livejournal.com]

Yep, fastest way to kill the taste of a tomato is refrigerate it. What a waste of some good heirlooms.

I saw that Alton Brown show. As usual, you learn something new each time you watch. He's my culinary god.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I was riveted to the TV during the tomato show. I wish it was required viewing. Honestly, it was absolutely wonderful.

I love Alton, too! I love the science side of it. Fascinating.

[florence-craye.livejournal.com]

I've loved tomatoes my entire life and eat far too many of them in the summer, when we grow our own. Mmmm.

Refrigerating tomatoes is a travesty. But eating them like an apple is always ok.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I've tried growing my own before, but in MI we have a shorter growing season, and both places I've tried there wasn't enough sunlight, and tomato plants are such sunshine hogs!

But I love them, I love the way they feel and smell for some reason. I love the yellow blossoms. I really miss growing them.

[dark-cygnet.livejournal.com]

I worship Alton Brown.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Oooh...the Pudge will get jealous! Unless you enlist Alton to help feed it.

[dark-cygnet.livejournal.com]

Ah, you've figured out my ebil plan. I will do anything to keep the pudge happy and if i have to worship Alton to do it, then i guess thats a sacrifice i have to make. The things i do for Teh Pudge. *g*

[bell-witch.livejournal.com]

Tomatoes and bananas taste like nothing when cold. I don't actually like tomatoes--they are too acidic for my stomach. But I know better than to put them in the fridge. Maybe it's a midwestern thing.

I always get weirded out when I have to buy zucchini. Now that the area around dad's house is grown up and the deer come through all the time, the garden is impossible to grow. They (and the bunnies) eat everything. I used to go outside and pick zucchini and stuff for stir-fry. Need a cucumber for the salad? Pick it.

Although even the stuff at the farmer's market is cheaper than produce at the store right now. It's obscene, and I can't afford to buy any of it with the amount of food stamps I have. Teh suxxor.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Zucchini plants are such overachievers. I remember one year we had some and they went nuts and we had zucchini coming out of our ears.

[jen-deben.livejournal.com]

I do hope you complained to the restaurant. If they are "upscale", then they should care about what their customers think of the food. No one gets better without feedback, so I'm a firm proponent of - politely - complaining when things are done wrong in a restaurant. They are a business, after all. They want to know how to make you happy, so that you'll come back.

For example, if my steak isn't cooked correctly (I'm squeamish about rare meat), then I will often eat it anyway, but I will always tell the server that there was a problem. The cook can't get better unless someone tells the cook when he or she is doing it wrong.

You're not being rude or whiny by politely complaining about how the food was prepared; you're doing the restaurant - and the cook - a favour.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I am not much of a complainer. Plus, my sister had raved about it, so it is acceptable for most of the midwest palates, obviously. If they have health code issues or they feel it's important to ruin---er, refrigerate tomatoes, then far be it from me to correct them. :)

You are right, though.

[sylvadin.livejournal.com]

That's one of the few things I regret about living in the Pacfic NW - climate prevents one from growing good tomatoes.

Most grocery store tomatoes aren't just picked green - they were specifically bred to be able to tolerate being mechanically harvested then transported in bins the size of semi-truck trailers without crushing - which explains why the average grocery store tomato has all the texture and flavor of a tennis ball.

One lucious heirloom tomato salad I've had was simply slices of beefsteak tomato layered with slices of fresh mozarella cheese balls, dribbled with a quality balsamic vinaigrette, and garnished with some fresh basil leaves. Yummmm...

[valis2.livejournal.com]

My favorite heirloom tomato salad (I have it three days a week during the season):

slices or chunks of heirlooms
chunks of avocado
goat cheese
homemade seasoning salt (basil & sea salt)
slightly sweet blush wine vinaigrette
sometimes chopped up pieces of these fabulous hearty white onions from the farmers' market

It is delicious, oh yum!

And I looove the mozzarella/balsamic/basil/tomato salads too. Fantabulous.

Yeah, the science behind our plentiful fruits and vegetables is amazing!

[julian-black.livejournal.com]

Ugh--ruining perfectly good tomatoes like that! I hope you complained. I would demand a public flogging. But that's just me.

Tomatoes actually rot a lot faster in the fridge, especially when kept in a bin or the plastic bag from the supermarket. I have four on-the-vine tomatoes sitting on my kitchen counter. They've been there for almost two weeks, and I should eat them soon. I'm imagining them thick-sliced, with fresh mozzarella, a drizzling of olive oil, and some chopped basil. Yeah.

My mother, however...[sigh] I can't seem to break her of the habit of buying cheap tomatoes and then refrigerating them. She says the good ones are too expensive, but she always ends up tossing out cheap tomatoes that have turned to moldy sludge in a bag in her refrigerator.

Maybe she does it on purpose so I'll keep bringing decent tomatoes every time I come visit...

[valis2.livejournal.com]

Tomatoes actually rot a lot faster in the fridge

Aha! I have been wondering...

And my mom does the exact same thing with tomatoes.

When I still lived with them I'd leave the tomatoes on the counter and they'd be in the fridge as soon as she walked in the door from work. argh!

And we won't even discuss how many "moldy sludge"-fests I had to clean out of the crisper. ;)

[gina-r-snape.livejournal.com]

Amen, sistah! You speak the tomato gospel truth!!!!!

btw, even us foodies are permitted the odd pot noodles. No worries. ;-)

[valis2.livejournal.com]

*giggles* And now, O Heirloom Congregation, we shall sing the Tomato hymn...

Lead us not into the supermarket, oh Tomato Creator...
Deliver us from their cardboard tomatoes...

pot noodles = love

[gillieweed.livejournal.com]

Tomatos. Fridge. NO! Not even non-heirloom tomatos can stand up to a fridge. I'd have sent them back. AND told them why. AND told them if they didn't believe me they could ask Alton.

[valis2.livejournal.com]

I knew you'd comment to this entry. :)

Yeah, I should have done all that and more, but I didn't think they'd understand, and I should have known better.

[gillieweed.livejournal.com]

You mentioned Alton! How could I not? I know you probably didn't want to stir things up in the restaurant (stir things up! ha!) but believe me, they needed to know, and I bet the folks who ordered those tomatos would have wanted to know what was going on there. There's a disconnect between the ordering, preparing and serving of certain courses particularly in fancy, upscale restaurants and there's a good chance the chef had no idea someone low-down the production line was fridging his heirloom 'maters and dousing them with vinegar (did ya see Alton's new show? It was about vinegar!)
Anyway, I dug up this little prezzie for ya--you can remind yourself of the fine points again!

[valis2.livejournal.com]

there's a good chance the chef had no idea someone low-down the production line was fridging his heirloom 'maters and dousing them with vinegar

The thing is, it was described as having a vinaigrette, so I think the vinegary taste was on purpose. You're correct about the refrigeration, though.

I'm going to look and see if they have any way that I can e-mail them.