Randomness: Respect and position on tomatoes (unrelated to one another)

[koalathebear]

Respect

I adore the Aretha Franklin song Respect and I also really like the Erasure song A Little Respect which was used so hilariously in a season 1 episode of Scrubs. The songs are behind the cut as are the lyrics ....

Comments

[22by7]

i didn't know about that site. i recently did a paper - to the bewilderment of fellow students as well as professors - on the history of the potato and ended up reading about tomatoes and corn and all that funky travellin' foodstuff.

[koalathebear]

That is hilarous that you wrote about the history of the potato. I adore the potato - fried, mashed, boiled, baked .... It's a humble vegie but so delicious. In Mainland China, they call the potato 土豆 tǔdòu which means Bean of the Earth or Earth Bean :) Not unlike the French word pomme de terre, in fact.

[koalathebear]

Err... except that it refers to a bean not an apple ...

[mbs_bookworm]

Potatoes are awesome. The simpler, the better-cooked and seasoned with a bit of butter or olive oil does the trick. Fries are good too-the thicker variety rather than the thin, crunchier ones are my preference.

[ginger001]

It's curious they called it 'tomate' at first and later on changed, since here we call it 'tomate' as well as apples are 'manzanas'... ;)

[koalathebear]

Oh that's fascinating to know. All I have is that in Chinese, tomato is called 番/蕃茄 fānqié although in the PRC (and the PRC only I believe) it is called 西红柿 xīhóngshì - west red persimmon. In Vietnamese it is called cây cà chua which basically means 'sour fruit'. I guess the Vietnamese definitely classify it as a fruit rather than a vegie :)

I also find it hilarious that anyone could have ever thought that the tomato was poisonous!!

[ginger001]

but tomatoes routinely turn up in trivia books: 'did you know that the tomato is not a vegetable but a fruit? *gasp* FACT!'

hmm.

oops

[22by7]

anon comment was by me

[mbs_bookworm]

A good tomato-big, juicy, at the height of the season-is very delicious.

(But not better than chocolate.)

[koalathebear]

Weirdly enough I'm the reverse and have a soft spot for cherry tomatoes :)

[mbs_bookworm]

Well, cherry tomatoes are nice too.

The salient point is whether it's ripe and juicy.

[firefly1984]

Heh, this is rather amusing. Yes as you were just saying above, cherry tomatoes are nice, sometimes I find them quite addictive. You haven't mentioned fried tomatoes though - fried tomatoes rock!

Fruit and vegetables don't really have the same addictive qualities of chocolate though. Ferrero Rocher chocolates are kind of similar in shape and size to the cherry tomato, well perhaps slightly bigger. If only Ferrero Rocher chocolates were as cheap as a box of cherry tomatoes though, sigh...

[koalathebear]

Fried tomatoes? Hmmmm, I have to say that my allegiences are more closely aligned with Sun Dried Tomatoes. I adore sun dried tomatoes. I suppose the only problem with sun dried tomatoes is that what makes a tomato so attractive to me is that it's so pretty, round, red and shiny. Once it's become a sun dried tomato, it kind of has a scary, leathery, shrivelled Tollund Bog Man about it .... although it's always so delicious in pasta.

Euphonic?

[koalathebear]

You be the judge. :)

Re: Euphonic?

[firefly1984]

Haha, no it isn't euphonic in the slightest. That's funny though, I decided to do that simple pleasures meme (which I've almost completed) and I mention euphony in my first point...

[snacktastic]

We used to forcefeed my brother tomatoes because he hated them more than any food on earth. Ha! Good times.

[koalathebear]

O that's just cruel :) Still, if they were little cherry tomatoes presumably the trauma wasn't too hideous :)

[snacktastic]

They were big ass tomatoes. We were mean. We also used to make "Everything in the Refridgerator Sandwiches" and make him eat that too. I said, "This is your punishment for being the only boy with two sisters."

Ah, sweet justification.