A few days ago, I took my neighbors M and B some tomatoes — both red ones and yellow ones. Walt asked me what they thought of the yellow ones, and whether they had ever seen tomatoes like those before. I didn't know because the neighbors hadn't opened the bag immediately.
A couple of days later, I got a phone call to thank us for the tomatoes (and a couple of zucchini). I asked M what she had thought of the yellow tomatoes. I'd never seen tomatoes like that before, she told me. They are delicious, she added. Elles fondent dans la bouche. They just melt in your mouth.
I believe the first time I ever saw and tasted yellow tomatoes was back in the early 1970s when I moved to Illinois to go to graduate school. I don't remember them earlier than that, when I lived in North Carolina. A few years back, friends who live near Urbana and the University of Illinois campus gave us some seeds they saved from yellow tomatoes they had grown. We planted them here in Saint-Aignan and they were really good.
I'm not sure I've ever seen yellow tomatoes in France, either — at least not around Saint-Aignan since we moved here 14 years ago. The ones we grew this year are of the variety called Jubilee. The Ferry-Morse seed packet says, accurately: "Golden-orange fruits have a mild, non-acid flavor. They are large, globular and smooth with a meaty thick-walled interior. Few seeds."
Well, you're up early! And we're up late: it won't cool down enough for us to sleep for a couple of hours from today's high of 107. We had yellow tomatoes--from Trader Joe's--for dinner. Can't recall my first one, but I remember the first time I had a green zebra tomato, at the Flea Street Cafe.
ReplyDeleteOMG, 107ºF. That's heat enough to kill you. It must be an all-time record high for San Carlos. I wonder if it is that hot in San Francisco too. I remember the time the temperature hit 103 in SF, back in the late 1980s when I worked downtown. Hope you cool down soon. It's almost chilly here now.
DeleteForgot to say: for a few months now the new dog has been waking me up every morning at 5 because that's doggy breakfast time... Don't know how to break Tasha of that habit.
DeleteI had to Google where San Carlos is. Wow that's high. We are 100 today with high humidity. And occasional afternoon rain showers, like Miami.
DeleteYellow tomatoes are popular here. ;-)
I don't recall seeing yellow tomatoes in grocery stores in Northern Virginia. Yours look more orange than yellow.
ReplyDeleteI guess they are "golden-orange" as it says on the seed package. They are certainly delicious.
DeleteBy the way, I remember learning decades ago that orange was not a color in French but a fruit. Now I see in the CNRTL dictionary that it is a color but the adjective is invariable. I think it's a shortcut meaning de couleur orange. Chef Simon, however, doesn't seem to follow that rule.
DeleteI think orange is the only color that takes its name from a fruit and not vice-versa. It is probably the reason why the adjective is invariable. In Chef Simon tomates oranges I understand it as a fruit that is a cross between tomatoes and oranges and not a tomato that is orange in color. Language subtlety?
DeleteThe adjective marron for "brown" is also invariable, I believe. Above I meant to say not de couleur orange but de la couleur d'une orange. What I remember from my stay in Aix-en-Provence more than 40 years ago was that in France then something we described as "orange" colored in English was either jaune or rouge in French, depending on what shade of orange it was.
DeleteIn Italian, tomatoes are known as pomi d’oro which means golden apples. Here is a link.
DeleteThere is also taupe, mole, for a grayish brown color.
En français, orange est la couleur du spectre qui se trouve entre le jaune et le rouge.
DeletePeut-être que c'est technique ou scientifique. Est-ce qu'on dit feu jaune ou feu orange par rapport au feu vert ou feu rouge des feux de signalisation ? Je pense que de nos jours l'un ou l'autre de dit (ou se disent).
DeleteDans les feux de signalisation, il ne fait aucun doute qu'il s'agit d'orange et non pas de jaune. Jaune et orange sont deux couleurs distinctes et non pas interchangeables. Orange figure dans les sept couleurs du prisme.
DeleteSelon les lois et le code de la route, il s'agit d'un feu jaune. Ou jaune-orange à la limite. Dans le temps, c'était un feu jaune. Je pense que sous l'influence de l'anglais, la couleur du feu s'appelle, populairement, "orange" maintenant. Et on ne dit pas trop "un feu orange" mais on "passe à l'orange" quand on ne peut pas s'arrêter à temps et sans danger. Le terme "feu orange" est peu utilisé, paraît-t-il.
DeleteKen, I made your zucchini lasagna. It was/is delicious. I say is since I am still eating on it. :) I usually don't like ricotta because it always taste grainy, but this time it was just great. My problem was with the mozzarella. I think I need to buy different mozzarella or mix it with a better melting cheese. Maybe I should have bought the already shredded kind. It melted, but was not stringy. As soon as I work that issue out I putting this in my keeper file.
ReplyDeleteI used "cooking mozzarella" to make the zucchini lasagne. I see it called mozzarella cuisson or mozzarella cucina in Europe, and it's sold as a block or "brick" of cheese that's dry. I think it might also be called "pizza mozzarella" and I think shredded mozzarella that you can get at the supermarket is the same idea.
DeleteRegarding the puppy getting up too early -
ReplyDeleteThis is what I have read or done ... later suppers, late last walk of the day ( a full bladder etc is not going to let anyone sleep late) If at all possible, ignore her when she starts to nudge you into getting up ... she should give up and at least nap some .. make breakfast time later ...
I first heard of yellow (light orange) tomatoes when my uncles was growing them in the '60s, in Massachusetts. They, too, said that they were less acidic, but I didn't actually eat one then. I've grown the Golden Sunburst cherry-size tomatoes in my garden and they are the most delicious, sweet tomatoes imaginable.
ReplyDeleteJudy
The record for San Carlos is 108 on June 14, 2000. We were both still working, but we went for a walk at 11pm because it was too hot to sleep, and we weren't alone. The heat scorched the leaves on our camellias, but the leaves hung onto the plants for years.
ReplyDeleteI read that the record high in SF was 104 on the day in June 2000. I was working in Belmont then, I believe, but I have no memory of that hot spell. Strange.
DeleteRegarding Tasha's dawn breakfast expectations: children outgrow getting up impossibly early, many Tasha will too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement. We have to keep remembering that Tasha is just 6 mos. old.
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