Buon Apetito

Antonio Campagniolo, late one night last week, in front of his restaurant Lambrusceria, Conde Altea 31 in Valencia. For three years Lambrusceria, a.k.a. "The Docks", has been our favorite eatery in VLC, and has in that time become a popular hangout for the AC crowd. Toni is a marvelous host and good friend.

Rachel Arrives in VLC

Sister Ruth's oldest, Rachel, arrived in VLC this evening after an overnight flight from Detroit to Frankfurt, and then connecting through Madrid -- her first trip to Europe. Rachel took the 20-hour journey in stride and was none the worse for wear. Tonight, after raising a glass at dinner to the memory of "Aunt Ethel" (Rachel's grandmother -- see previous post) we got Grandma Jan on the speakerphone....

Ann Arbor's AC Team?

If for some odd reason our family and friends in A2 do not want to get behind and cheer for the "home" America's Cup team, the USA's BMW ORACLE Racing, then maybe you will find reason to back Sweden's Victory Challenge. From this morning's issue of the popular sailing newsletter Scuttlebutt....

* The Victory Challenge’s new America’s Cup boat, SWE 96, has been named Järv, or wolverine in English. The wolverine is one of the least known predators which is remarkably strong for its size and often described as cunning. By naming SWE 96 Järv, Victory Challenge continues its tradition of giving their America’s Cup boats names from nature. The two boats built in Auckland, SWE 63 and SWE 73 were called Örn, eagle, and Orm , snake. -- http://www.victorychallenge.com



Järv, training off Valencia against one of Victory's 2003 Cup boats in recent days. Photo: Victory Challenge.



Järv (upper right corner) was christened last night at a raging party, sponsored by title partner Red Bull, at their team base in Valencia. Photo: TFE.



You Univ of Mich fans will even appreciate the colors of the Swedish
national flag.

Positions in Bed

A few days back we received an email from a friend with pictures showing various positions in bed. We knew Meg would be especially keen to see these photos -- though they aren't anything she could not see, and probably already has seen, on the internet.

So we decided to produce a video slide show of the pictures and post it here on the EFB as our first ever educational video. Parental guidance suggested.

A Fruit, Except When It's a Vegetable?

This has been an ongoing topic of discussion in Casa Ehman over the holidays. Talk about hedging your bets, this from AskOxford.com (you gotta love the Brits)....


The confusion about 'fruit' and 'vegetable' arises because of the differences in usage between scientists and cooks. Scientifically speaking, a tomato is definitely a fruit. True fruits are developed from the ovary in the base of the flower, and contain the seeds of the plant (though cultivated forms may be seedless). Blueberries, raspberries, and oranges are true fruits, and so are many kinds of nut. Some plants have a soft part which supports the seeds and is also called a 'fruit', though it is not developed from the ovary: the strawberry is an example. As far as cooking is concerned, some things which are strictly fruits may be called 'vegetables' because they are used in savoury rather than sweet cooking. The tomato, though technically a fruit, is often used as a vegetable, and a bean pod is also technically a fruit. The term 'vegetable' is more generally used of other edible parts of plants, such as cabbage leaves, celery stalks, and potato tubers, which are not strictly the fruit of the plant from which they come. Occasionally the term 'fruit' may be used to refer to a part of a plant which is not a fruit, but which is used in sweet cooking: rhubarb, for example. So a tomato is the fruit of the tomato plant, but can be used as a vegetable in cooking.


Wikipedia, clearly with more of an American bent, takes a legalistic view....

Botanically speaking, a tomato is the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant, that is a fruit or, more precisely, a berry. However, from a culinary perspective, the tomato is not as sweet as those foodstuffs usually called fruits and it is typically served as part of a main course of a meal, as are other vegetables, rather than at dessert. As noted above, the term "vegetable" has no botanical meaning and is purely a culinary term.

This argument has led to actual legal implications in the United States, Australia and China. In 1887, U.S. tariff laws that imposed a duty on vegetables but not on fruits caused the tomato's status to become a matter of legal importance. The U.S. Supreme Court settled this controversy in 1893, declaring that the tomato is a vegetable, using the popular definition which classifies vegetable by use, that they are generally served with dinner and not dessert. The case is known as Nix v. Hedden (149 U.S. 304). Strictly speaking, the holding of the case applies only to the interpretation of the Tariff Act of March 3, 1883, and not much else. The court does not purport to reclassify tomato for botanical or for any other purpose other than paying a tax under a tariff act. However, the USDA also considers the tomato a vegetable.

In accordance with the botanical classification, the tomato has been proposed as the state fruit of New Jersey. Arkansas takes both sides by declaring the "South Arkansas Vine Ripe Pink Tomato" to be both the state fruit and the state vegetable in the same law, citing both its botanical and culinary classifications. In 2006, the Ohio House of Representatives passed a law that would have declared the tomato to be the official state fruit, but the bill died when the Ohio Senate failed to act on it.

But due to the scientific definition of a fruit and a vegetable, the tomato still remains a fruit when not dealing with tariffs. Nor is it the only culinary vegetable that is a botanical fruit: eggplants, cucumbers, and squashes of all kinds (including zucchini and pumpkins) share the same ambiguity.

Okay, that would seem to sum it up pretty well -- so the tomato is born as a fruit on the vine, but cooks turn in into a vegetable. Meg wishes they could do the same with chocolate!



Fruit on the vine, and...



...vegetable on the table. Is that a yummy- and healthy-looking tomato salad or what?!