Vegetating.

[pseudomonas]

Copied from a rantlet I made in a comment elsenet, agreeing with the proposition that the "tomatoes aren't really vegetables" is just silly

I get really^* cross about the fruit/veg thing

a) Clearly (to my eyes) the botanic definition of a fruit is only tangentially relevant to the culinary definition. We can do this. We have polysemy, we have shades of meaning. It's OK.

b) Even if the botanic definition were useful, why would "fruit" not then be a subset of "vegetable" (which would presumably be defined as something like "all edible plant (or plant-and-fungal) matter")?

c) Even if fruit were not a subset of vegetables, why on earth would you assume that fruit and vegetables have got to be disjoint? Just a miserably narrow gastronomic outlook?

d) Why do people always go on about tomatoes, and not cucumbers, mange-tout, pumpkins, courgettes, aubergines, rhubarb, and so forth?


^* for a small value of "really"

Comments

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

Oops, sorry, I did accidentally propagate that with my savoury fruit salad, but faod, I generally agree with you on this matter.

[pseudomonas]

heh, I think that's playing with the meme rather than perpetuating it :)

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

:) good.

[the_alchemist.livejournal.com]

Oh goodness me yes, this makes me so ridiculously, disproportionately hopping mad.

[tim]

Tomatoes identify as vegetables, but their botanical sex is fruit. (Was that condescending enough? Not being cis, I can only try to emulate that level of condescension ;)

[sunflowerinrain]

I'm one of the people who wondered what UKgov's new guidelines (5 veg and 2 fruit a day) actually meant. I suspect they might be thinking of sugar content, but in that case beetroot should be in the 2-a-day category which they have confusingly labelled "fruit". Perhaps people don't know what's in their vegetables, and UKgov don't think it's possible to educate the populace.

Is pumpkin a culinary fruit or vegetable? What about chocolate beetroot cake and carrot cake? Do 'fruit' juices include carrot juice, or exclude tomato juice? Salads with a mix (celery, lettuce, tomato, peppers, oranges), ditto curries. I think it would be much easier to drop the term "fruit" from cooking. I have trouble with the trad British gastronomic demarcations, especially as they are a) no longer relevant and b) historically inaccurate.

It's so much easier to know whether an edible piece of a plant contains seeds, or not. Of course cucumber is a fruit - you can see the seeds!

[beckyc]

Whatever next? People getting really invested in whether birds are/are not* dinosaurs, or humans are/are not apes?

*Delete according to preferences and if you actually give a monkeys.

[pseudomonas]

I think you'll find it's "if you actually give a primate's".

[pseudomonas]

(obviously birds are dinosaurs cos it's SO MUCH COOLER THAT WAY)