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.