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Tomatoes: Fruit or Vegetable?

Tomatoes: Fruit or Vegetable?

  • Fruit

    Votes: 58 73.4%

  • Vegetable

    Votes: 19 24.1%

  • Don't know: Don't care

    Votes: 2 2.5%
  • Total voters
    79
~Shard~ said:
Neither - tomatoes are actually ancient life forms from a distant planet which crash landed on Earth many millennia ago. And humans, being the savages that we are, purposely engage in controlled breeding of them so that we can harvest their species and eat them! :eek:
Click to expand...

And one day they will have their revenge.

attack_of_the_killer_tomato.jpg
 
swiftaw said:
Both

Botanically, a fruit. Culinarily, a vegetable.

Expanding. A tomato is the fruit of the tomato plant, but is used as a vegetable in cooking.

Note that vegetable has no botanical meaning, it refers only to edible parts of plants.
Click to expand...

Wow, that's exactly what I'm about to say. I was even planning to use the word culinarily.
 
They are both.
Culinarily speaking they are vegetables like lettuce, potatoes, carrots, onions peppers, olives...
Botanically speaking they are fruits because they are seeds surrounded by edible flesh (just like peppers, eggplants, cucumbers...). This is opposed to potatoes, carrots, onions and lettuce, as those comprise other parts of the plant.

It gets interesting with olives and melons. Botanically they are fruits. Culinarily olives are vegetables and melons are fruits (they are sweet).
But, olives, like the items that everyone agrees are fruits (apples, oranges, "summer" fruits...) grow on trees. While melons, like the items that are classified as vegetables, grow on plants that must be replanted every year (unlike trees that live from season to season).
 
djellison said:
Actually - botanically, it's a berry.

Surprised no one has said that so far.
Click to expand...

Macdawg did, in the fourth post of this thread, when he quoted Wikipedia ;)

Let's see if anyone knows this; which of the following are berries? Strawberries, raspberries, peaches and watermelons :D
 
Generally, anything that grows as the product of something else is a fruit (eg: an apple from an Apple tree, a grape from a vine, etc). A "fruit" is where pants store sugars, which is why fruits are usually sweet. As the product of something else (i.e. a plant), this is where the term "The fruits of your labour" comes from.

Anything that just grows out of the ground rather than as a product of a plant is generally considered a vegetable (e.g.: potatoes).



I don't give a toss what the culinary world considers a fruit or vegetable. :p
 
MacDawg said:
This coming from sushi! :p
Click to expand...
:)

MacDawg said:
I tasted sushi once... and gagged... then spit it out :eek:
I'm a meat and potatoes kinda guy, with a little macaroni and cheese thrown in there
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Hey, nothing like a little bait, er. fish for dinner. :p

Anyhow, I was a meat and potatoes kind of guy before I came to Japan.

Now I, love sushi. In fact, this week I will be having two sushi dinners. Next week all you can eat sashimi. Yum. :D

BTW, I've eaten things that are still moving after you put them in your mouth! :eek:

Cassie said:
A tomato milkshake is as equally nauseating. :D
Click to expand...
A bloody milkshake? :p

Now both a Bloody or a Virgin Mary is a good drink.

JohnNotBeatle said:
What, you don't like rice? or vinegar? Some Southerner... :p
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Snort! :)

You know, the rice/vinegar/etc. is very important to the taste of the sushi. Some shops have better fish, but their rice mix stinks. A good rice mix is very important to the overall quality and taste of the sushi.

Sashimi, on the other hand, doesn't have rice so the rice mix doens't matter.

ATH44 said:
They are both.
Culinarily speaking they are vegetables like lettuce, potatoes, carrots, onions peppers, olives...
Botanically speaking they are fruits because they are seeds surrounded by edible flesh (just like peppers, eggplants, cucumbers...). This is opposed to potatoes, carrots, onions and lettuce, as those comprise other parts of the plant.

It gets interesting with olives and melons. Botanically they are fruits. Culinarily olives are vegetables and melons are fruits (they are sweet).
But, olives, like the items that everyone agrees are fruits (apples, oranges, "summer" fruits...) grow on trees. While melons, like the items that are classified as vegetables, grow on plants that must be replanted every year (unlike trees that live from season to season).
Click to expand...
My brain hurts. Crying uncle! ;)

djellison said:
Actually - botanically, it's a berry.

Surprised no one has said that so far.
Click to expand...
Now my brain hurts more. Screaming uncle! :p
 
For some reason, I think more people should know about this. When I learned about it in middle school, the actual difference between a fruit and a vegetable, it blew my mind and I sought to convert everyone to the biological way of thinking.

Tomatoes are fruit. Cucumbers are fruit. Eggplants are fruit. Normally, anything with seeds in it and grows off a plant is a fruit.

Not surprisingly, most people wouldn't listen to a little seventh grader trying to convince them their zucchini wasn't a veggie. :(
 
Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit.

Wisdom is knowing not to put one in a fruit salad.
 
typed tomato into spotlight, here was the dictionary result

tomato |təˈmātō; -ˈmätō|
noun ( pl. -toes)
1 a glossy red, or occasionally yellow, pulpy edible fruit that is typically eaten as a vegetable or in salad.
 
I once dated a girl who would eat tomatoes like apples. I guess she was firmly in the "tomatoes are fruit" camp. Of course, that's not as strange as someone else I know who would eat raw onions the same way. I love onion, but the thought of just picking one up and eating it makes me cringe a bit.
 
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