how do you eat your tomato?

Yesterday at lunch, there was a talk from somebody from National Public Radio, usually referred as NPR but pronounced for mysterious reasons empiar. The talk was not very interesting. If the talk is labelled brawn bag talk, than you can bring your lunch and eat while you listen to the talk. At my Armenian grocery I have found some very good tomatoes, red juicy full of pulp. As I wait for the talk to start I grab a couple and start biting them, like bela lugosi in the good old days, careful for the red juice not to spill away from the victim. A fellow researcher looks at me in amazement and says, "I had never seen anybody eating a tomato like that, for they are a fruit aren't they?" I am a little embarrassed and try the individual solution, "well I am" but I know it will not work, in a minute or two cultural explanation makes its way in the conversation. At this point the only possible fun is pushing the pedal of the stereotype: "I am from Sicily you know, we all eat tomatoes like this, but only in the summer when they are ripe" Actually, I wonder how widespread is such a practice among Italians. Around me, in the meantime, a general agreement has been reached that the spectacle of the exotic creature eating tomatoes with his bare hands and mouth has never been seen before. And the discussion then lean on the nature of tomatoes, fruit or vegetable, their content in vitamin C and so on. At this point I decide to keep the two bunch of grapes in my bag for another moment...