accent its pungency. Some books recommend soaking ginger in acidified water before adding to the

cooking pot for extra pungency, but my experiments in the kitchen didn't verify this. Only cooking

in acidified liquid makes a difference.

Storing the Members of the Tribe

Dry storage onion, which is our regular, everyday yellow onion, keeps well for weeks under

normal home conditions in a dry, well-ventilated area. Keeping them in a closed plastic bag reduces

storage life because moisture builds up in the bag and the onion starts rotting. Same thing happens if

your storage area is too humid. If so, your next best bet is storing it in the refrigerator to slow

spoilage.

Fresh summer or sweet onion is perishable and must be refrigerated or at least kept in a cool

place of around 55°F (13°C) with fairly high humidity, like most fresh vegetables.

In most kitchens you often need to store part of an onion, and the best place is in the

refrigerator. Wrapping it in plastic and foil won’t keep the powerful odors sealed in. A good plan is

to reserve a wide-mouth jar or other container with a tight-fitting lid just for cut onions and

refrigerate it. Some cooks store chopped onion in the freezer, too in a well-sealed container, ready to

use when they need it.

Garlic keeps well for many weeks under dry conditions. Its papery skin effectively protects

the inside from spoiling or drying out, so don't peel it off until ready to use it.

Fresh ginger is moderately perishable. Under ideal commercial conditions of temperature

and humidity, distributors store it up to 6 months. It keeps for a long time in your refrigerator, too, if

you store it in your humid vegetable bin but not closed in a plastic bag—remember that the ginger

root is alive and needs to breath just like you do. A plastic bag not only restricts air flow but builds

up humidity, and in no time your ginger root grows a beard (called mold). It is a good plan to wrap

it in paper or kitchen towel to absorb extra moisture.

TOMATO AND ITS BAMBINO, SUN-DRIED TOMATO

The tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) belongs to one of our most important food families,

called the nightshade family, along with peppers, potatoes, eggplants and tobacco. It is one of the

most popular ingredients in kitchens worldwide. It would be hard to come up with a cuisine that

doesn't include tomato, whether it is spicy hot like Thai or as mellow as Dutch cooking. The

Chinese was the last one to accept them, and 150 years later tomato is still not a popular ingredients

in their dishes.

In the U.S. the tomato is legally a vegetable, even though botanically it is a fruit. It officially

became a vegetable in 1892 when the New York Port Authority found themselves short of tax

revenues. Authorities didn’t tax fruits shipped into New York, but they did vegetables. Calling the

tomato a vegetable added a considerable amount to the Port Authority's annual income. The tomato

growers were upset, sued New York and the case went to the Supreme Court, which, in 1892,

declared the tomato a vegetable since cooks use it and serve it as a vegetable. Today only botanists

are authorized to call tomato a fruit.

TASTINGS Fruit or vegetable

The tomato fruit is a vegetable because we use it as a vegetable. There are other

Serious Kitchen Play