Carrot vs. tomato: and the winner is ...

Our local television and radio stations – public as well as commercial – like to include some ‘insolite’ (unusual, out of the ordinary) topics in the daily news. I guess it’s done in an attempt to make us forget the gloomy, sordid and bad news and horrible images they’ve shown before. Very often these topics are really hilarious and on other occasions they are just interesting and surprising … surprising enough to make you wonder ‘Why?’

Last Monday the item that made the headlines was: “Carrots more popular than tomatoes!” Tell me, have you ever consciously asked yourself which is the most popular/most bought/consumed vegetable in your country? Well, here in Belgium, apparently, the tomato has been pushed from it long-held throne by the humble carrot.

An assortment of different types of tomatoes,
on special offer in our supermarket today.
It looked promising but turned out to be a bad buy as 25% of the tomatoes were already soggy and showing spots of decay when I removed the plastic film.

If we are to believe the researchers who are responsible for this scientifically challenging study, price has nothing to do with it. The real reason is the versatility. Carrots can be consumed in more ways than tomatoes; raw ‘sur le pouce’ (simply washed or peeled), grated, glazed, mashed with or without potatoes, as soup ingredient, etc.  They store very well too. If you have a cellar, you can even put them in a box filled with soil, with just the top sticking out. That way you can keep them for weeks or even months.

Tomatoes are delicious. They are versatile too: raw, in a salad with some spring onions and olive oil, as a vegetarian Carpaccio, stuffed with minced meat, and there is nothing as comforting as tomato soup … but in the latter case you would mostly use canned tomatoes, unless you have a large crop that you want to use in the most efficient and delectable way. But one would rarely buy fresh tomatoes to make soup. It seems such a waste … And finally, there is the storage problem. Unless you make tomato sauce, dry the tomatoes or make ketchup, fresh tomatoes just don’t have a long life span.

So the carrot has taken over! Maybe the economical crisis has something to do with it. Or maybe it’s simply because our taste buds have changed. What do you think?

Btw, guess which vegetable has really lost most of its popularity here in Belgium? I’ll give you a hint, just in case you want to surf the internet to find the answer: The fresh ‘primeurs’ which will come into season soon, are grown in the region of Mechelen, halfway between Brussels and Antwerp.

A surprise call and a missed lunch

My Easter break ended last Sunday. So on Monday morning, it was time to return to the office after 10 days of absence. I was relieved to hear that there hadn’t been any crisis worth mentioning and that the mail with the feedback I had asked for before closing down my office laptop on April 4^th was sitting in my mailbox, waiting for my return.

Monday and Tuesday were rather boring, with business as usual – except perhaps for the colourful bowl that I had placed in a strategic position on the corner of my desk for all to see. It was filled to the brim with a carefully picked selection of sweets and chocolates for all to take as a special treat to mark my birthday. The mini-packs of M&M and the mini Milky Way and Mars bars turned out to be the most popular, followed by the Chocotoffs – the sticky Belgian, remember!

When I left the office this afternoon, the bowl was as all but empty … and some of my colleagues looked slightly heavier than they did on Monday morning!

Just before noon today something totally unexpected happened, which btw had nothing to do with the sweets. I was standing in the lift with my manager and a colleague after attending an in my opinion useless meeting. We were travelling down from the fifth to the first floor where our office floor is located, when my mobile phone rang. Very few people call me on my mobile phone, and those who do, usually do so in the evening when I’m at home. When I saw the name that appeared on the little screen, I couldn’t have been more surprised: Mats! My long-time (40 years) Swedish friend.

“Hi Martine! I’m in Brussels. Would you like to have lunch with me and my business partner?” It turned out that he had a meeting this morning and was about to fly back to Stockholm when he learnt that his plane had been delayed. The flight was rescheduled for 6 p.m. He therefore had some time to kill and wanted me to join him and his business partner at the Grand’ Place in Brussels for lunch. The idea was tempting, especially as it was a nice and sunny day ... But, having another meeting at 1 p.m. and with a product launch on April, 24^th, I didn’t think it wise to accept his kind invitation.

I did give him the address of my favourite restaurant near de Grand’ Place, though: La Roue d’Or. When my blog friends Bob and Pat from Georgia (US) visited in June three years ago they had dinner there. And the following year I took blog friends Veronica and Sue from the UK there too for lunch. It’s a lovely place, not a tourist trap, and the food is excellent.

Mats asked me to send him a text message with the name of the restaurant and the address. An hour later I received a message saying that they had found the place and that they had ordered mussels. Later again, there was another text message reading: “Great meal!!!!”

I’m really qorry I had to refuse his kind invitation. It would have been lovely seeing him again. In June, it will be a year since I spent a fabulous week with Mats and his wife Vera in the Loire Valley. Happy memories!

By the way: Mats sends his best regards to all the blog friends he and Vera met last year at Susan and Simon’s blogger barbecue.