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Tomatoes are the planet’s most common fruit; used in dishes as essential as pizza, burgers, and Indian curry. But just two hundred years ago, few had ever tried a tomato, and many of today’s favorites hadn’t even been invented. And even worse, tomatoes weren’t just unknown; they were the subject of wild stories that they promoted witchcraft, caused poisoning and even turned consumers into werewolves.
This is the story of the path of tomatoes.
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0:00 – Introduction
1:12 – Nix vs. Hedden
4:43 – Tomatl
7:51 – The Aztec Legacy
14:27 – Losers of the Columbian Exchange
17:28 – Witches and Werewolves
19:30 – Nightshades
22:20 – Spanish Tapas
27:52 – Barbarian Eggplants and Poison Apples
32:22 – Italy
36:38 – A Neapolitan Feast
43:28 – The Tomato Takes Flight
45:49 – Ketchup
48:10 – China
50:27 – Dalian Restaurant
55:01 – Corporate Tomatoes and Bloody Mary’s
58:20 – Everywhere
1:01:55 – Credits and Post-Credits
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Video Credits:
21 Comments
One quick correction then location pins: minor thing, but around 59:40 when we mention Butter Chicken, the two co-creators were cousins, not brothers. In case anyone in their family is watching and notices.
Location pins:
1) Delia Mexican Restaurant: https://maps.app.goo.gl/FLxfGk3sKRKjRLkB7
2) Bar Sociedad Laferia: https://maps.app.goo.gl/pT76L5RKLmRpoSCu6
3) Peppina: https://maps.app.goo.gl/kmdhuhSW4JJxN2iW8
4) Dalian: https://maps.app.goo.gl/fD9B9UtobdAztT548
And the delivery burger at the end came from Easy Burger: https://maps.app.goo.gl/JA2caYVrGFHeuqNh9
Cheers!
I could tell the lady wasn't American at 12:00 right away by the fact she actually knew how to hold and use cutlery. Compare to the American dude she's sharing dinner with 😂😂😂
26:38 I mean ofc nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! 😂
Sir may I just say, the beard works 👌😌💯 very crushable teacher vibes
Regarding the tomato as a fruit vs a vegetable…while the US legal thing is interesting and amusing, I'd argue the more important definition is the botanical definition of fruit vs the culinary definition of fruit.
In botany, fruit is any seed bearing structure in a flowering plant that forms after flowering. It is an apple, an orange, a peach, a berry all the normal fruits used for snacks and dessert. It is a pea pod (peas are seeds, the pea pod is therefore a seed bearing structure, it forms after the pea plant flowers, no botanist would find this a weird statement. It is a squash. It is an avocado. A pepper. A cucumber. Eggplant. Okra. Basically anything that you cut open and find seeds in it, as well as the occasional oddball like strawberries where the seeds are just stuck to the sides. Conversely, in botany, a vegetable…is part of dinner. It's not a botanical concept at all, because "vegetables" are literally any part of a plant that's edible. Sometimes it's not even a plant! Mushrooms are vegetables and they're fungi!
By the culinary definition, fruit specifically has an overall sweet flavour profile (with a few weird exceptions in the citrus family like lemons and limes, probably because they're cultivars of older citrus varieties that were seen as fruit) and are primarily seen as being compatible with the dessert course. There are exceptions to this: pumpkin can easily be used in vegetable soup and in most other applications, it would be regarded as a vegetable, but it can be used to create a pumpkin flavoured custard used in pumpkin pie. Apples, strawberries and tangerines all work well in salad, despite generally being seen as suitable dessert components. Grapes are a nice dessert, but aged grape juice is wine, which is typically not dessert related (so much so that dessert wines need to be specifically labeled as such) My family's favourite salad recipe combines broccoli, grapes, scallions, almonds and bacon…which does not sound like any sort of logical combination but tastes amazing.
Tomatoes are botanically fruit, sure, but their acidic flavour profile makes them much more useful in the world of entrees than the world of desserts. Thus, much like avocados and squash, they are vegetables.
(The real insanity of the American legal thing is labeling the highly processed and sweetened tomato sauce known as ketchup as a vegetable serving. Part of why we see vegetables as healthy is that they are rich in vitamins that break down over time or when overly processed and/or cooked, like Vitamin C. A kid who eats no vegetable other than ketchup, even if they consume truly absurd amounts of ketchup, is a kid who develops scurvy and hopefully gets a dietary intervention to treat it.)
Omg he actually left Bangkok, incredible
Nope spoke too soon
I suggest reading Prof. Alberto Grandi s books in order to clear the mess about tomatoes, pizza and pasta… Most probably the way we know them today they were all invented in new York and never seen in Italy before wwll. Double check your sources.
thank you for showcasing my fav fruit/vegetable! — and when i tell people this they look confused 😔 so underrated and underappreciated tbh but nothing hits like a fresh cherry tomato in peak summer
Wow. I knew a fraction of this. Exemplary research, as always.
Tomatoes, tomatillos, capsicums/bell peppers and chillies, potatoes, eggplants, mandrake, and tobacco are all in the taxonomic family Solanaceæ. 1,245 different species of the genus Solanum (tomatoes and potatoes) alone. Four to five thousand different cultivated varieties of potato, and ten thousand plus of tomatoes. Stunning.
Thanks, I finally know why Tomato is weirdly called Fanche in Cantonese/Mandarin lol. Barbarians' fault eh.
Coincidence of sorts – I was in Bangkok this last week, and when I visited the hot food market near my hotel (the Bun Anan Market in Don Mueang), it seems that what was in season were tomatoes – in particular, several varieties of cherry tomato. Quite a few vendors selling them. Didn't buy any, but there was one stall which was selling peruvian gooseberries (which I think are related), and I did buy some of those to bring back. Incidentally, I finally got to try the hor mok at the Bang Kachao weekend market – the last time I was there, last year, the old lady was having a holiday. It was delicious – seems to be a variation of otak-otak.
Another great story, thank you to the OTR team 🙏
Hmm I think i don't like cherry tomatoes anymore
46:23 Also the case in Indonesian as "kecap", specifically "kecap ikan". In general, it's a term for soy sauce. And then there's "kecap inggris" for Worcestershire.
Dropping everything a new episode 🙌❤️🔥
I wasn't expecting the spanish inquisition
Are the new thicker tomato skins for improved shipping durability, longer shelf life and appearance ? . Just like cellophane !
Fascinating. I wonder why there isn’t a huge industry of Thai or southeast Asian mozzarella, since this is where water Buffalo live.
My Aunt was very involved in humanitarian Aid for the vietnamese Boat People that came to germany. One of them became a life long friend of the Family and they had a chinese Restaurant (most early chinese Restaurants in germany are actually ran by vietnamese people) and she taught me to cook the sweet and sour Sauce with cleared tomato water. Is that actually a common thing, or is it more like a personal thing maybe? My Indonesian Friends all were like "Just use Ketchup, lah. Flavor same same but much easier"
@20:30 Okra is form the family Malvaceae, not a nightshade.
Not just corn and potato also amarand in the americas