Entries from August 2007 ↓

Tsk tsk – good testing wouldn’t have let this get through! Us QA types go berserk at developers if we see this!

(God that’s very red on this site!)

The conversation at Fuel today was whether tomatoes are a fruit or vegetable. All sorts of theories were submitted by those of us standing around:

• It’s got pips not seeds – it’s a fruit


• It grows on a vine, not in the ground – it’s a fruit


• You eat it for lunch, dinner etc, not as pudding – it’s a vegetable


• It’s not sweet – it’s a vegetable (never mind that lemon’s are not sweet and they’re a fruit)


• It’s in the same family as capsicums – it’s a vegetable


• It’s in the vegetable section of the supermarket – it’s a vegetable


• There’s something not so obvious about this – it’s a fruit.

And Wikipedia says … (something quite long and detailed…)

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

This argument has had legal implications in the United States. 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 the controversy in 1893 by declaring that the tomato is a vegetable, based on the popular definition that classifies vegetables by use, that they are generally served with dinner and not dessert (Nix v. Hedden (149 U.S. 304)). The holding of the case applies only to the interpretation of the Tariff Act of March 3, 1883, and the court did not purport to reclassify the tomato for botanical or other purposes other than paying a tax under a tariff act.

So, it’s a fruit? Or a vegetable?

The FletchTV hiatus is almost over – our shows are starting again soon:

• Prison Break – 17 September
  
• Heros – 24 September
  
• Bones – 25 September
  
• ER – 27 September
  
• Grey’s Anatomy – 27 September

Got a summons from Fuel today – they were doing a photo shoot for a profile they’re doing and needed some models customers. Me and my oldest Fuel friend gladly obliged – he knew about the free coffees on offer - I just went bolstered that they needed *my* help with something.

Got a free coffee and stood around chatting (whilst being prodded to stand this way and that) to some other regulars from other sites who I’d never met - in the small town that Wellington is they both turned out to be ex-colleagues/bosses of people I now work with!

When it was all over there was much hand-shaking and we were laden down with goodies handed out by Sanjay himself – tonnes of free coffee vouchers, as much of the catered lunch (food props) as we could carry and a bag of beans! Yeah boy!!

So, who know, maybe I’ll be on a billboard around town somewhere … or perhaps a small shot on their website!

We just spent a great rainy day at Te Horo watching Ruth Pretty cook, listening to her stories and eating a multi-course meal. Mum and Dad got us a voucher to go to a cooking class for Christmas and what with the waiting list, popularity of classes featuring Ruth herself and abundance of get-more-from-your-barby courses it’s taken this long to get out there.

And it was so worth it! We felt somewhat out of our depth with the first people we met as we were not staying at our beach house while m’ma looked after the kids, nor was this our 3rd or 4th class but by the time it came to sit sociably at tables to eat rather than in rows to learn, we’d come across a great couple who were also ‘RP Virgins’ over which there was much giggling!

Ruth’s a great story teller and I suppose after years of being in the business had quite mastered the art of talking and browning or chopping or sharpening a knife and along the way were heard some great stories from her meeting Jennifer Aniston’s personal chef while on holiday in Malibu to where to find the website of the main lentil-importer in New Zealand to the petition she wanted us all to sign to get mandatory country of origin labelling on all supermarket foods!

The theme of the day was a good hearty winter meal you could cook much of in advance so that you could have 16 people over for dinner without being stuck in the kitchen all day. Yeah right! There’s definitely stuff on the menu we’ll try – we were given a full pack of recipes and advice on what could be prepared ahead.

Thanks Mum and Dad!

Ruth Pretty’s Big Night In

Chevre Crostini with Caramelised Shallots
Red Skinned Potatoes and Scallop Roe with Lemon Caper Mayonnaise
Scallop Tartare with Herbed Lentils

Braised Short Ribs (beef)
Honeyed Kumara Mash
Warm Haricot Beans with Pine Nuts
Lemon and Garlic Braised Leeks

Rum Baba
Roasted Pineapple

Coffee and plum strudel muffins to start the day

Ruth in action

The commercial kitchen benches set up as tables for our lunch

The Mister waiting for his lunch