The Pilgrim's Pots and Pans

All throughout the world today, tomatoes are one of the most highly-consumed produce. This berry is indispensable in many Filipino recipes, one would think it an indigenous plant. What adds to the confusion is that some varieties, like the one in the picture above are called “native camatis“. Perhaps nativised but far from indigenous for our beloved camatis has come to us most probably by way of the long Pacific journey.

Let’s learn more about the tomato.

The plant is native to the Andes where the Aztecs domesticated it first with the name xitomatl. Now globally popular, the tomato was feared to be poisonous during its early migration to Europe. Although grown in gardens and called poma amoris, pomme d’amour (love apple), Paradice Appfel (apple of Paradise) and later on poma d’oro to the current Italian pomodoro (golden apple), it wasn’t until the 1700s that the Southern Europeans, particularly the Italians, found the tomato acceptable but only mainly for garnishing.

Of the genus Solanum which include the poisonous mandrake (Podophyllum peltatum), the potato (Solanum tuberosum) and the aubergine or eggplant (S. melongena), the tomato is a perennial grown from seeds and thrives in warm and sunny climes on well-drained sandy loam soil. On the average, a cultivated plant grows up to a metre (three feet) in height, bears yellow flowers with fruits that range in colour from green when unripe and yellowish to deep red when ripe.

Brought to the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period, the camatis (perhaps a plural form of the corrupted Mexican jitomate) is now considered a major crop. In many farms, it is planted after rice is harvested to let the fields ‘rest’ since it requires very minimum to no tillage.

There are many varieties of tomatoes in the Philippines. These range from the ‘native’, which I prefer to call local, ridged fruits with colloquial names such as capac, mendes, bulaclac and the smooth, long and fleshy varieties to the more modern hydroponically grown plums, romas, and cherries. The local varieties do not keep well when transported since they are fairly thin-skinned and have a higher liquid content than the tough-skinned and fleshy varieties grown for commercial purposes.

Personally, I prefer the large (approx. 2 in./50 mm. in diameter) and juicy varieties for fresh salsa-like preparations – with fried fish, meat or eggs. These have a softer flesh and a sweeter juice. The smoother varieties I prefer to cook with since the flesh is firmer and the acidity mellows well with heat.

Tomatoes have been so indigenised in Philippine cuisine and are eaten fresh, in guisado, for sauces, as souring agents and even made into preserves. As I research about our traditional cooking, they also serve as my indicator as to a dish’s age. Two examples would be for our town’s sigang and mung bean soup. We do not use tomatoes for these two recipes. Indicator of pre-Spanish roots? Hmmm… a topic for another post.