Tomato, Tomahto...let's call the whole thing off

When it comes to locavorism, I fall firmly on the fence. I love locally grown produce in season, but I don't necessarily agree that it's always the best possible choice. I have been known to enjoy California strawberries, Dutch bell peppers and even South American asparagus. If it tastes good and the price is right, that's mostly what matters to me.

But will somebody please explain to me why any professional cook, even at the meanest diner or hot-dog stand, would send out tomatoes like this in high summer??? What possible excuse can there be for serving such pallid, tasteless, mushy things at the height of tomato season?

If it were February, I could understand it. (Of course, in February, I wouldn't order a BLT. But honestly, I've seen better-looking tomatoes than this at Jewel in mid-winter.)

I almost never make complaints at restaurants, but in this case I called for the manager and put the question to him. He looked at me like I was nuts. He had no idea what I was talking about. "What's wrong with the tomatoes?" he said. Even after I explained, he still looked like he thought I had a screw loose.

The restaurant in question is a busy Greek diner where the food is usually pretty good for its type. I won't name them because they are far, far, from alone in this. A few summers back, I did a survey of hot-dog stands in July, and ripe tomatoes were the exception rather than the rule.

I don't really care where the tomatoes come from, but I want them to be ripe and taste good. So, I should think, would everyone. Obviously, there's something I don't understand about restaurants and their produce suppliers.

But it isn't just restaurants: I don't understand why ALL the tomatoes at the grocery store (and obviously Bunnicula finally got to the Campiri tomatoes, they are now just as bad) are like this. Ten years ago, you'd get meltingly good local tomatoes at the grocery store, not just at specialty markets.

We can get local apples, local peaches and local berries at the grocery store: sometimes these are cheaper and better, and sometimes not. Why on earth we are getting tasteless tomatoes when the Midwest has the perfect tomato climate?

Mhays- This is a loaded question. See the threads on locavorism and your answer will be in there somewhere, if you read between the lines -- this is all part of the industrial food system. Taste often ends up off the balance sheet somewhere.

LAZ - I think the reason for the tomatoes you have is simply this: Diners, fast food joints, etc., like to run their tomatoes through a slicer, and you need a certain hard tomato to do that. It doesn't occur to them that they should switch up their tomatoes in summer, because they've been ordering the same slicer-appropriate tomatoes for years.

However, less that 10 years ago, I remember getting nearly-as-good-as farmer's market tomatoes at the grocery store. In fact, my search for decent tomatoes was what brought me here!

Grocery stores have changed, even in the last 10 years. Very few are independent. With a lack of independence, goes a lack of local control, more bulk buying, more contracts with large suppliers, and more shipments across country. One could argue that the business model of a large grocery store may have been the central motivating force behind modern locavorism, but it's much too complicated to discuss here, and more than that, has been discussed in detail elsewhere on this site.

aschie30 wrote:LAZ - I think the reason for the tomatoes you have is simply this: Diners, fast food joints, etc., like to run their tomatoes through a slicer, and you need a certain hard tomato to do that.

I don't think that can be the explanation, because large chain fast-food places, which I am certain use slicers, often have palatable tomatoes, maybe not dead-ripe juicy beefsteaks, but much better than these. I also know for certain that there are automatic slicers capable of handling ripe tomatoes and other soft fruits.

Although I grant you that the mushiness of those on the BLT above was likely because they had been sliced too early and refrigerated.

And I don't think that cross-country shipment is the sole explanation for the lousy tomatoes Mhays is finding in grocery stores, because I remember the old days, too, and some of the perfectly ripe tomatoes I used to buy at supermarkets came from Florida. They weren't as good as tomatoes fresh off the vine, but neither were they pink baseballs. Something has changed in the shipping and storage process, or the harvesting methods, or elsewhere down the line.

So the problem is that your Wonder bread, your Oscar Mayer bacon, your iceberg lettuce, your commodity pickle and your frozen fries were accompanied by an inferior tomato?

I'm not knocking la cuisine du diner Grecque a la 11 pm, I indulge it too upon occasion, but what about this meal made you expect anything higher than comfortable mediocrity in any part?

Hi- I never buy tomatoes in the grocery store Dominick's and Jewel never carry local tomatoes, and all the tomatoes that are shipped in from Mexico or Florida, are specifically bred so they can ship well. Most of the varieties of tomatoes bred for shipping long distances, are sorely lacking in the flavor department. Most shipped in tomatoes are also picked green, and then gassed, to make them turn red. Even Whole Foods carries tomatoes from Mexico right now, although I think a few of their tomatoes are home grown.

The tomatoes that you buy at the farmer's market that taste the best, do not ship well, and have a short shelf life. My favorite tomatoes are Sun Gold, which is a cherry tomato, and Brandywine, which is a heirloom. I raise both of these varieties in my garden. The Brandywine do not produce well, and I am doing good if I get 6 tomatoes per plant. I never give away any of my Brandywine tomatoes. Brandywine tomatoes get large though, and one tomato can weigh a pound.

There are a few people at Evanston that only grow tomatoes bred for shipping, and I pass on those. All of the organic growers have very good tomatoes, as do Nichols and First. There is also somebody else from Benton Harbor that grows heirloom tomatoes, and I don't remember his name. He is right next to Kublick's, and he also sells fruit, sunflowers, and stalks of brussel sprouts in the fall. There are also a few growers that sell decent Sun Gold tomatoes.

BTW- One of the organic growers at the Saturday Evanston market, had all of their tomatoes. including Brandywine, for $1.50 a pound yesterday. It was the farmer from the Rockford area, whose name starts with a K, and I do not know how to spell it. Hope this helps, Nancy

Of course the germ of the answer rests in what Wendy says. It's like you cannot pick and choose from your industrial food system. And to some extent you have to blame those California strawberries, Dutch peppers and South American asparagus. You reap the tomatoes you sow, no?

That said, I do not wholly agree with the premise that decent local tomatoes are a creature of farmer's markets and backyards. I do pay close attention to farm food available at the grocery stores (cf here). Angelo Caputo, especially, has tended to recognize the demand for real tomatoes, and you can usually find such at their stores this time of year.

Mike G wrote:So the problem is that your Wonder bread, your Oscar Mayer bacon, your iceberg lettuce, your commodity pickle and your frozen fries were accompanied by an inferior tomato?

I'm not knocking la cuisine du diner Grecque a la 11 pm, I indulge it too upon occasion, but what about this meal made you expect anything higher than comfortable mediocrity in any part?

Ordinary food is not something I "indulge" in as a form of culinary slumming. Neither my income nor my tastes are so elevated that I can afford to sneer at diner fare.

I don't expect haute cuisine from a diner. I like iceberg lettuce fine and I have yet to meet a properly cooked piece of bacon I'd disdain. The bread was a perfectly OK dense white bread.

I didn't expect them to be organic, heirloom 'Red Brandywine' or 'Pink Ponderosa," but decently ripe tomatoes in midsummer should not be a luxury item beyond low-cost menus.