I generally don’t mind eating tomatoes much – in salads, in sandwiches, on pizza. In moderation, I find tomatoes inoffensive. I understand, of course, that people have different tastes – I don’t begrudge you your tomato.
A couple of days ago I read this:
The Jer Zone – “Cherry, grape, pear…whatever they are, the small tomatoes are now ripening. Good for impromptu snacking.“
and this:
Tinyblog – “I saw Daniel off this morning with a kiss, three of the biggest sandwiches I’ve ever helped make and a sack of freshly harvested cherry tomatoes(his favorite garden snack).”
and today, this:
Sagbottom – “I have them [tomatoes] sliced with a little salt and pepper, tossed with a little oil and basil, popped into my mouth naked.”
Each time I read one of these blog entries, a minor impulse somewhere in the back of my head made me feel that the writer wrote about eating a whole tomato to make people squirm. These bloggers couldn’t honestly like eating whole raw tomatoes, I thought. They’re just being intentionally controversial.
It appears that I might be an intolerant and unreasonable person.
If you are looking for guidance/enlightenment then perhaps Megnut’s Battle Tomato will help?
http://www.megnut.com/archive.asp?which=2002_08_01_archive.inc
It is sort of with a mixture of revulsion and delight that I ate those wee little heirloom lovelies whole. I’m pretty ooky about tomatoes, what with the scary childhood memories I had of my mother eating tomatoes like they were apples. Bluh. The pale boring varieties at the grocery store are certainly not worthy of such gluttonous glee. But heirlooms! I certainly don’t advocate stuffing a whole yellow boy or brandywine into one’s maw, but man… those tiny little grape-sized ones need to be inhaled in their natural form to be truly experienced. It’s like eating summer. Yum.