Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ryleeys]

I was teaching a class today that involved a story about a farmer's market and the produce it sold. I was asking if foods were fruits or vegetables... the two girls in the class said tomatoes were veggies. I told them they are fruits because they have seeds. They didn't believe me, so I told them to ask the science teacher. She said veggies too. I got online and showed them every website says tomatoes are fruits scientifically, only veggies to chefs. They still don't believe me.

So, what say ye? Fruit or veggie? And what do your Korean friends and students think?


Edit: I'd also like to point out that the lesson book said watermelons and all other melons are veggies too.

[Harpeau]

They're fruit because they grow on trees.

[osangrl]

of course its technically a fruit....

but tastewise of course a veggie, along with green/red/yellow peppers.....

[ryleeys]

But the thing is, absolutely no Korean could I convince that at some level, tomatoes are fruits.

[osangrl]

You can't really convince a korean about anything..... this week in mini-talks the question was - whats ur dream vacation- and not one student chose to travel outside of south korea

just nod and smile with them, nothing we can do.

[Real Reality]

Definitions of tomato on the Web:
(tuh-MAY-toh; tuh-MAH-toh) - One of the best things about summer is biting into a sweet, vine-ripened tomato. It is believed that tomatoes were introduced from South America to Europe in the 1500s. The Aztecs, according to a contemporary account, mixed tomatoes with chilies and ground squash seeds, a combination that sounds a lot like the world's first recipe for salsa. Tomatoes arrived in Europe from central and northern America.

Technically a tomato is a fruit, since it is the ripened ovary of a plant. In 1893, the supreme court ruled in the case of "NIX vs. HEDDEN" that tomatoes were to be considered vegetables. There are more than 4,000 varieties of tomatoes, ranging from the small, marble-size cherry tomato to the giant Ponderosa that can weigh more than 3 pounds.
http://whatscookingamerica.net/tomato.htm

Actually, the tomato is a vegetable fruit! In the scientific sense fruits are mature plant ovaries, but what we eat often includes adjacent or accessory parts of the mother plant. For example the true "fruit" part of a strawberry (which is actually not a berry at all, but an "accessory fruit" like the apple!) is those tiny brown seeds or "achenes" embedded on the surface of the sweet juicy strawberry, which is an edible part of the mother flower. The tomato is a special type of fruit called a berry that consists of a single ovary with many seeds surrounded by juicy flesh.
http://www.theithacajournal.com/news/stories/20040415/lifestyle/233448.html

Originating in South America, the tomato is now grown world-wide for its brightly coloured (usually red, from the pigment lycopene) edible fruits. Botanically a berry, the tomato is generally thought of and used as a vegetable: it's more likely to be part of a sauce or a salad than eaten whole as a snack, let alone as part of a dessert (though, depending on the variety, they can be quite sweet, especially roasted).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato

[panthermodern]

Tomato = Fruit.

fleshy seed pod = fruit

PERIOD.

Also

Grapes are Berries ...

Berries are Fruit, therefore Tomatoes are Berries ...

The courts be damned!

The USA gov't has no power over botany ...

[Zyzyfer]

Korean kids are taught that a tomato is a vegetable. You can correct them all you want, but you're taking on the entire education system with that one.

[katydid]

Kind of weird then the cherry tomato should appear on cream cakes with pineapples, cherries and kiwi fruit. I think it's a fruit, too, but it shouldn't go on a cream cake. Bleah.

[Harin]

What, tomato is a fruit??????? NOOOOOOOOOOO, I find this news far more disturbing than Santa not being real.

[crazylemongirl]

Tomatos are to fruit what cheesecakes are to cakes.

[weatherman]

Technically if anything starts off as a flower the resulting issue is a fruit.

Technically only. A tomato is a vegetable, damn nice vegetable too.

[Swiss James]

is this thread the new "Gay or a stud"?

[Gord]

[kangnamdragon]

This is not a matter of opinion. A tomato is a fruit because it has seeds inside. Technically, even a cucumber is a fruit.