Friends, I need to get something off my chest.  It’s something that’s been bothering me for a while.

There are nights where I’m just a BIG fan of grabbing a sandwich at Subway.  When it’s late and I don’t feel like cooking, it’s so easy to walk the block and pick something up.  It’s cheap too.

But… SOOOOO often, when I go into Subway and ask for tomatoes on my sandwich, I start to shudder at the thought that they’re about to serve me a sandwich with an unripe tomato.  I usually just grin and bear it because I don’t want to be the guy who’s like, “Yes that one… no not that one… that one.”

It just BUGS me.  How hard is it to understand that unripe tomatoes taste like crap?

It’s just funny because I’m reading this book about the history of In-n-Out.  They talk about In-n-Out’s commitment to quality and how they’d only use the ripest tomatoes.  Even on top of that, they’d only used the slices in the middle of the tomato because those tasted the best.  That’s dedication to quality.

Hmm… Yeah so this is just a major pet peeve of mine.

Do you guys have any major pet peeves when it comes to food service?

(Photo by Jetalone)

Now this is an event that I absolutely must attend before I die, La Tomatina Festival.

On the last Wednesday of August each year, in a small town in Spain, 45,000 people come from all across the world to toss 100 tons of tomatoes at one another.  It started in 1945.

Check out the article for more amazing photos of La Tomatina.

Cleaning up after this event must suck.  Heh.

(Photo by grahammclellan)

On Saturday, I was walking through Washington DC’s famous fresh/farmers market Eastern Market.  I got excited when I noticed that one of the produce stands was setting heirloom tomatoes.

Ever see those multi-color crazy looking tomatoes?  Those are probably heirloom tomatoes.

So what’s an heirloom tomoato?  According to TomatoFest.com, it’s “a variety that has been passed down, through several generations of a family because of it’s valued characteristics.”

You can find all kinds of heirloom tomatoes.  One of the most common is Brandywine Heirloom tomatoes.  It’s a variety that can be traced back as far as the 1800s. It’s a varietal that’s prized by food gourmets for its great flavor.

So… I came how and diced up a bunch of the different heirloom tomatoes.  I tossed them with some diced pancetta and balsamic vinegar.  It was delicious.

Heirloom tomatoes definitely look different and I could have easily passed by them.  I didn’t and I’m happy.

Have you had an heirloom tomato before?  What do you think?

(Photo by luvjnx)