• TxzK
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    755 months ago

    Biologically, tomatoes are fruit. Culinarily, tomatoes are vegetables.

    • @[email protected]
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      165 months ago

      I dunno, even in a culinary sense, tomatoes are way too acidic to lump in with vegetables imo. The textures are totally different from veggies too

      • @zarkanian
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        125 months ago

        Which veggies? Eggplant, zucchini, and potatoes all have very different textures.

        The difference is in flavor. Veggies are savory and fruits are sweet.

        • @[email protected]
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          85 months ago

          First, eggplants and zucchini are fruits too, and both are sweet, just not banana-sweet (in fact, try zucchini bread if you haven’t - best shit ever). Second, many veggies are sweet, like carrots, onions (though it’s masked until cooked), and …uh… sweet potatoes. Third, good tomatoes are absolutely sweet, not like candy but especially the little salad tomatoes aren’t very far removed from a grape, which I think we agree are a fruit. Then there’s olives, that bizarrely savory, dark fruit. They’re delicious but I’m pretty sure they’re from another planet.

          So overall I think, if we’re going to go by flavor, then imo acidity is the least ambiguous differentiator. Still not perfect, I’d rather just call it a fruit if it has seeds and isn’t a pod. I’ll give it to you on texture though

    • @[email protected]
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      85 months ago

      I don’t think vegetable sounds right either. No one crushes up broccoli or carrots to make sauce for pizza and you don’t add tomatoes to your roast veggies.

    • @[email protected]
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      75 months ago

      The problem with the culinary term “vegetable” is that, properly, it applies to any edible part of a plant, and improperly, it’s basically a useless distinction.

  • @[email protected]
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    5 months ago

    do you know how this meme or bell curves work? should be the dummy saying vegetable, the majority saying fruit, and the genius (on the right…) saying it’s a vegetable

    • Ixoid
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      25 months ago

      Why would the genius say something wrong like that? Tomatoes are fruit - grows on the vine, contains seeds inside it, fruits regularly without destroying the parent plant.

  • @[email protected]
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    115 months ago

    The effective vibe is much more important than any underlying biology.

    Tomatoes are vegetables.

  • @[email protected]
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    95 months ago

    I’ve always heard it’s intelligence that tells us tomatoes are fruit, but wisdom tells to use it like a vegetable in cooking

    • @[email protected]
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      55 months ago

      I always heard it as intelligence tells us tomatoes are fruit, wisdom tells us not to use it in a fruit salad.

  • Alien Nathan Edward
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    85 months ago

    Errbuddy wanna talk about tomatoes but the real question is, are bananas fruit? Some varietals are sweet and clearly belong in desserts and fruit salads, some are savory and starchy like potatoes, depending on the culinary tradition you come from they’re used in both contexts, and they can and should have seeds but they don’t due to selective breeding. Tomatoes exist in an ambiguous state, but bananas are somehow both at all times.

    • Canadian_Cabinet
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      75 months ago

      Bananas are technically berries, which makes them a fruit. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone think of a banana as a non-fruit before

      • Alien Nathan Edward
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        65 months ago

        Plantains are bananas (same species, different varietals) and in many cultures are used in savory contexts

        • Canadian_Cabinet
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          65 months ago

          Oh yeah, I forgot about those. Funnily enough, here in Spain bananas are plátanos and plantains are bananas

  • @[email protected]
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    45 months ago

    “Vegetables” makes no sense.

    Tomatoes, grapes, apples, cucumber, pumpkin, eggplant, mushrooms, all fruits.

      • @[email protected]
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        15 months ago

        We are talking about “fruits” here which isnt even a term used to describe plants. Maybe in english, not in german.

        • @[email protected]
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          45 months ago

          mushrooms are not fruits in any sense. Fruiting body is applied colloquially however since spores are not fruits this is also incorrect.

          However much like with calling a tomato a fruit, it’s perfectly clear to call the penis loo lookin’ thing a fruiting body and only derranged pedants are bothered by it.

        • @[email protected]
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          25 months ago

          Fruits are a specific part of the plant, the seed-bearing part (pods and ferns are the exceptions, I guess). Veggies are the rest of the plant. Mushrooms are fungi’s and all, don’t get me wrong, but they’re not plants