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Comment by pengaru | Hacker News Reader

Tomatoes are one of those texturally weird to eat fruits/vegetables where the experience is dominated by the placenta.

Borderline inedible, classifiable as food only insofar as they can be imbibed but certainly toxic in their capacity for repugnance alone. Culinary atrocity.

Vine-ripened cherry/grape tomatoes are like candy, but the small unit size diminishes the whole "what is this sloppy mush I'm eating???" aspect.

Large beefsteak tomatoes however, no thanks!

Beefsteak tomatoes with some buffalo mozzarella and basil and you've got yourself a Caprese.

Tomatoes are a culinary atrocity?

Tomatoes are the fruit of all evil.

Tomatoes have original sin, and I will only eat them after they have been purified by fire (or cooking anyway), or by sitting in the sun for quite some time.

In the few misfortunate events I've come upon, I can relate to you, friend, that the experience can be most likened to having cold spit with curd mincing around in your mouth. Simply revolting. And the taste is no better. It is thus that I come to rate the tomato as an atrocity. And I do so in the hopes that I might illuminate the good folk who may hear my beseeching, to expel them of their ignorance, that they may cease in their rotten wont to consume such a morsel. As Socrates says ignorance is the one evil, so I avail all of this knowledge; and I am compelled to do so for the sake of virtue! Cease the use of this foul morsel, my friends, that none may suffer further from the reviled thing!

Kinda wish mind transfer was a thing so I could experience how fucked up your taste buds must be. I can see what your saying on texture but there is no way tomatoes taste bad given their prevalence in so many countries food.

The tasteless "conventional" varieties found in chain grocers across the USA are basically inedible if you're turned off by the texture, since there's not much more than the texture being experienced.

This applies in varying degrees to practically all the "conventional" fruits and vegetables I encounter. Even if you don't buy into the organic health arguments, it at least tends to have more appropriate flavor and less chemical aftertastes.

I’m referencing tomato flavor in general. Ketchup, tomato based sauces, and tomato paste are default flavors in more than a third of the planets population just based on the us, Italy, India, and France that I know use it in daily cuisine. That doesn’t even cover the continent where tomatoes are native to, or any other culture that may eat the tomato routinely. The poster I replied to is basically stating that they can’t understand why more than 1/3rd of the population at minimum, likes the flavor incomplete error because they personally don’t like the flavor

A simple explanation my friend: the unwashed masses are, with good effort, making an attempt to adopt an affectation of good taste. "This fine vegetable is an acquired taste, say they. But it is evident to anyone who can be imputed with, in the real sense of the word, "fine tastes" that it is precisely an affectation undertaken to give the impression they have some degree of sophistication.

But what you've said, sir, is concerned with a fallacy in any case. Would you so blithely recommend Nickelback on the presumption that because it is popular it is good, and it is good because it is popular? I suspect so, but a man of sophistication, refinement, and class such as myself can in no wise commit to espousing such a view! "To consort with the crowd is harmful; there is no person who does not make some vice attractive to us, or stamp it upon us, or taint us unconsciously therewith." or so Seneca says! Avail yourself of the knowledge I have yielded to you, assent and ascend my friend!

> This fine vegetable is an acquired taste

Never once have I heard anyone say this about tomatoes.

I find it much more likely that you’ve have somehow only ever had bad tomatoes, have bad taste yourself, or are being intentionally contrarian.

Some people hate the taste of chocolate, for crissakes. No need to insult them. Just eat their chocolate!

Alright, it turns out that you're missing out. You're just dead wrong. I know this because I used to feel the exact same way. Many tomatos are garbage. Mealy, yet also slimy, and no flavor except for an acidic aftertaste so you don't forget it too soon.

As it turns out though not all tomatos are created equal. Your grocery store is going to have a hard time having good ones, my understanding is that breeding pressures have selected for prettier but not tastier varieties. You will likely only find a tomato worth eating in a friends garden or in a farmers market. There is a huge variety out there, if you get curious I'd recommend just picking a couple at random, maybe one that has "beef streak" in the name. I personally enjoy these little dark ones called "black krim" because they are delicious and the name sounds like drugs in a sci-fi setting or currency in an illegal underground bazaar in a fantasy setting.

The way you eat them is to slice and salt. Or, take a portion of burrata, place in a bowl with slices/chunks of tomato, add olive oil and liberally sprinkle with salt, then eat. Or, I guess other ways too. The point is that tomatos can be authentically good.

Actually I think I'm allergic, I get itchy and develop a rash when I cut raw tomatoes. I've talked to a few people and apparently I'm the only one this happens to. I've hated them since I was young, maybe it's a Pavlovian conditioning thing, wouldn't be the first time I've managed to condition myself to the point of nausea, or at least gagging. Good way to get off Captain Morgan and build an aversion to nicotine products.

You might like this fun song by Mason Williams (of Classical Gas fame)

The Tomato Vendetta - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGdYoVm8OVU

The whole album is great BTW.

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