
The Tomato Was Feared in Europe for More Than 200 Years - NicoJuicy
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/why-the-tomato-was-feared-in-europe-for-more-than-200-years-863735/?no-ist
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contingencies
I often wonder what Chinese food was like before South American ingredients
showed up: chilli, tomato, corn, potato, etc. Probably quite different indeed.
The scale of indoor cultivation, the mere handful of modern commercial
cultivars and the supermarket emphasis on bulging red perfect-skin appearance
makes me wonder if tomatoes aren't one of the fruits worst affected by
monoculture farming. I've cut in to some tomatoes and found them dry, almost
juiceless, and semi-green despite a healthy looking red exterior. I suppose
there is some sort of growth hormone being used. I suspect lots of them are
hydroponically grown, which means although they may have a fantastic
appearance I fear they are likely lacking in trace elements and subjectively
overall taste.

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collyw
Are you in the UK by any chance?

Here in Spain there are way more varieties of tomatoes and the flavor is
generally a lot better then what I remember when I was back in the Uk.

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contingencies
Have lived in the UK ('fresh' foods famously bad), LA, various parts of China,
Bangkok, Sydney. Southwest China and Sydney have been the best for fresh food
in terms of quality and variety. LA wasn't too bad.

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a_bonobo
The potato has a similar early history in Europe, which is funny seeing that
it's such a staple and cliche by now:

>The Burgundians invented the French appellation pomme de terre–but they also
banned it on the grounds that it caused leprosy. While intendant of Limoges in
1761, the enlightened physiocrat Turgot tried to dispel the popular belief
that the purple flower of the potato was a version of deadly nightshade by
eating it in public and making peasants sit next to him to observe that he was
not poisoned. The French were not, of course, alone in their prejudices. In
1770 famine-afflicted Neapolitans refused to touch a boatload of potatoes sent
as a gift; burghers of Kolberg in Prussia told Frederick the Great, ‘the
things have neither smell nor taste, not even the dogs will eat them, so what
are they to us?’; and Russian peasants distrusted the potato because it was
not mentioned in the Bible, believed that it caused cholera and rioted when
attempts were made to force them to grow it.

From Blanning's The Pursuit of Glory, 399.1 in my ebook

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renox
From Wikipedia's entry on Antoine-Augustin Parmentier:

>Parmentier therefore began a series of publicity stunts for which he remains
notable today, hosting dinners at which potato dishes featured prominently and
guests included luminaries such as Benjamin Franklin and Antoine Lavoisier,
giving bouquets of potato blossoms to the King and Queen, and surrounding his
potato patch at Sablons with armed guards to suggest valuable goods — then
instructing them to accept any and all bribes from civilians and withdrawing
them at night so the greedy crowd could "steal" the potatoes.

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gregshap
Tom Brady, superstar American football quarterback with notably few injuries,
STILL won't eat tomatoes, eggplant, and other nightshades. I'm inclined to
think he's nuts, but his longevity in a brutal sport is pretty impressive.

[https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/tom-
bra...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.businessinsider.com/tom-bradys-diet-
is-strict-2016-1)

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f_allwein
> Around this time it was also believed that tomatoes were best eaten in
> hotter countries

That part is still true. I'm always amazed how nice tomatoes taste in Italy.

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kbart
_" I'm always amazed how nice tomatoes taste in Italy."_

It's pretty much in any southern country, mainly because they are grown
naturally there while in cold climates tomatoes are often grown hydroponically
in greenhouses[0].

0\.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er1elApDG8E&t=5m0s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er1elApDG8E&t=5m0s)
(see from 5:00)

