Tomatoes
By Balozi
@Balozi (243)
Kenya
10 responses
@irishidid (8687)
• United States
6 Jul 08
No matter how you use it a tomato is still a fruit.
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
9 Jul 08
In the West, we very frequently have raw tomato as part of a salad.
@desireeo (595)
• Philippines
6 Jul 08
i have learned that tomatoes belong to the fruit family. i didn't really get why since i have thought all my life that it's a vegetable. if you really want to know why you can always search the internet to know more about it's nature. all i know is that tomatoes are very essential in most of the foods that i eat and i love them in my soya sauce when i eat fish...good luck!
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
6 Jul 08
A tomato is specifically a 'fruit' since it contains seeds and is the fruit of the plant. The same can be said of, for example, squashes (courgettes/zuccini), avocados, egg-plants (aubergines) and many other things that we usually treat in a 'savory' manner. Of course, it is also a 'vegetable' (as opposed to meat or animal products), so both terms are technically correct, depending on what you are tacitly comparing them to!
In the kitchen and at table it is customary to call anything not animal that is served with meat or dairy products as a 'vegetable'. Sweet preparations, on the other hand, including rhubarb (which is strictly a vegetable) are termed 'fruit'.
I hope that clears up your confusion!
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
9 Jul 08
Well, I can vouch for its accuracy (I'm an Owl, after all).
It's easy, really. If what you hold in your hand has seeds in (or might have) and grew from a flower, then it's biologically a fruit. Bananas, plantains, tomatoes, chilli peppers, okra, mangoes, breadfruit, courgettes, squashes, marrows, gooseberries, limes, lemons, oranges, string beans, faba beans, most spices (but not ginger, galangal, lemon grass, bay and so on) .... &c &c are all 'fruits'.
In the kitchen it gets confusing because we call things by different names. You would think of vanilla, for example, as a spice or flavouring (though the vanilla pod is a fruit - and the only member of the orchid family that we eat).
Beans, tomatoes, chillies, okra, peanuts, mushrooms and so on we definitely class as 'vegetables', though they are the fruit of the plant, whereas we tend to think of rhubarb, particularly, as a fruit because of the way it is served (though it is actually the stem of the leaves). Artichokes, broccoli and cauliflower are all flowers and the part we eat hasn't even had a chance to set seed, so I suppose they are just 'vegetables'.
In the kitchen, the rule is: If it is not meat or dairy and it is not used just as a flavouring or spice, then it is vegetable. We do eat some very strange things! I am wondering where I would put bird's nest soup! Ummm ... I know ... 'soup', 
In biology, all fruits are vegetable (because they are not amimal or mineral) but
In biology, all fruits are vegetable (because they are not amimal or mineral) but
@sanzi1201 (644)
• China
7 Jul 08
It is a kind of vegatable.Because it could be cooked .But most of fruits are only eaten fresh.
@elshaddai123 (3981)
• Kottayam, India
10 Jul 08
It can be eaten as fruit too, it connects both the world
@snakequeen (1299)
• India
21 Jul 08
Tomatoes may be considered both as vegetables and fruits. In both cases, it has utility value.
@dinohe (92)
•
9 Jul 08
A fruit is the product of male and female parts getting together to produce something that carries seeds to create more of itself......
So tomato is a fruit because it is the product of pollination and carries seeds to make other tomatoes.But we generally treat it as a vegetable as we use it in salads,cooking etc that involve other vegetables.
@padmameera (952)
• India
7 Jul 08
Hi
Tomatoes are fruits. Botanically they are fruits with seeds inside. It is a berry consisting of seeds within a fleshy cover developed from an ovary like other fruits. But we consider them as vegetables since they are not taste sweet like other fruits and also can be used in dishes with other vegetables.
@LarienOB (103)
• China
6 Jul 08
IN China,tomatoes usually use as vegetable.We cook it with eggs,crab .We can buy it in market,but not fruits market.SO lots of us think it's vegetable,but i'm not.I still like eat it in crudity.It tastes wonderful,a bit sweet ,a bit sour . Tomatoes is my favourite food !!
