Prepare yourself. The above photo was taken in a gelateria, or ice cream shop, and pomodoro is the Italian word for tomato.
Yes, you understood that correctly: This is a picture of tomato ice cream.
Like most gelaterias in Italy, all of its ice cream is handmade in their on-site backroom kitchen, and I have an American friend who works in this particular gelateria. She told me about this new flavor her boss came up with recently and she invited me to stop by and give it a try.
Now, I admit that I didn't try it with an open mind. I speculated that the owner of this famous shop is a clever man, too clever perhaps, and successful enough to risk such an obvious flop. Here is a man, I thought, who reasoned that since the tomato is a fruit and all the other fruits have found success in the frozen dessert world, why not be the first to make a tomato gelato. Afterall*, the tomato is a prime ingredient in many important Italian dishes, from pizza to pasta to panini to... well, I'm sure you get the point.
In other words, I guessed that this ice cream wasn't invented because of the probability that it would taste good. It's a novelty flavor, a clever flavor, an "I dare you" flavor. I wasn't expecting to be blown away, nor was I expecting to be grossed-out since I do like tomatos.
It tasted exactly how one would expect tomato ice cream to taste. It tasted like a frozen salty tomato. Compliments to the owner and shop for getting the flavor exactly right, but a big boo for serving it as a gelato. As gelato, it's plain nasty.
The only good uses that I could come up with for this ice cream are to give it to people whom you don't like very much and to serve it as a literal gag joke. Let's hope this flavor stays (and dies) in Italy.
Congratulations, Pomodoro Gelato, not only have you revived this blog's once weekly award feature, Bad Design of the Week, you are also its recipient.
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*I know that afterall is not a "real" word. Correctly written, it is two. However, I believe that the time has come for them to enjoy compoundedness** like "however", "moreover" and "bookkeeper".
** I know that this isn't a word either, but it's so fun to say!
2 comments:
hahahaha great post Janelle.. i really enjoyed this read! Pomodoro gelato i just don't understand why anyone would do that to gelati.. gelati is meant to be sweet and delicious, not salty!! It's just soooo wrong. Which city was this in?
Lisa from Oz
Thanks, Lisa! It was in Brescia. As if we needed further proof that the Bresciani are an interesting group people... ;)
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