Monday, June 09, 2008

Salmonella on Your Tomatoes?

Today I was out of town on business. I ate lunch with my client at a sports bar type of restaurant. I ordered the "Miami," a corned beef on rye with cole slaw. It arrived packed with many slices of fresh tomatoes.

I'm going to come clean with you - I don't eat out a whole lot. I care a lot about what I eat, and we buy almost only seasonal locally grown or raised food for our family. We are dedicated to eating this way because it tastes better and feels healthier, and because it makes sense to us to eat what can be grown nearby - less transport necessitates fewer preservatives and chemicals, etc.

Because tomatoes aren't available yet on the east coast, I haven't had a "fresh" tomato since late last September. Really, I haven't. But today I did. And I come home to read this terrifying article about a massive tomato recall. As if I needed more convincing - don't eat foods that are out of season! Don't eat at chemical mega-plexes like Olive G***** or BurgerK*** because this is all they serve.

Lord, whoever you are, help us all to eat better.

So, do I have salmonella now? I guess time will tell.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you were just to remember that you're doing the wine blog thang, you'd have ordered the Miani not the Miami.

http://www.cellartracker.com/list.asp?fInStock=0&Table=List&szSearch=miani

Fortunately, my tomatoes come from a local hothouse source.

Anonymous said...

I'm trying to become as careful--some might call it nutso--about every item of food I buy as I am about wine. My grocery store stocks that Coudert Fleurie you mention in your previous Beaujolais post and you have convinced me to try it. We have organic heirloom tomatoes out here now, too, though it's a bit early for them to be really good.

Cliff said...

No kidding, Coudert at the grocery store? Now that is a grocery store I would frequent, all the time.

Joe Manekin said...

Neil, I hope that you don't have tomato salmonella.

Just made an eggplant-tomato dish last night with local tomatoes, and they were terrific - I actually wished that I had eaten them on their own or a sandwich they were so good.

Brooklynguy said...

so no salmonella, i'm overjoyed to report, although i am still firmly resolved not to eat tomatoes unless they are actually in season, or san marzano canned tomatoes.

and yeah - what grocery store is this that sells such wine steve? pathmark?

old skool - my favorite way to eat a fresh ripe tomato is sliced on a plate with salt and pepper, maybe a dash of fruity olive oil (i know that we're both frangoia sluts), and that's it. can't wait til late july!