[graciegirl]

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Food is almost always subjective. What we have grown to love to eat and the circumstances we enjoyed eating it from our past life are all part of it.

I find a tomato from an Ohio garden, picked off the plant and shined on my jeans and bitten and salted and eaten in the sunshine a fine dining experience.

[bonrich]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

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Food is almost always subjective. What we have grown to love to eat and the circumstances we enjoyed eating it from our past life are all part of it.

I find a tomato from an Ohio garden, picked off the plant and shined on my jeans and bitten and salted and eaten in the sunshine a fine dining experience.

Try that tomato with some sugar sprinkled on it when it is still warm from picking it in the garden.

[shcisamax]

CT tomatoes taste wonderful with a dab of mayo with salt and pepper. yum.

[skyguy79]

Originally Posted by graciegirl

I find a tomato from an Ohio garden, picked off the plant and shined on my jeans and bitten and salted and eaten in the sunshine a fine dining experience.

Boy does that bring back memories. I used to love taking a freshly picked tomato, sprinkly a little salt on it a take a bite, then repeat the salting and biting until the dream ended! Tasted even better if I washed the tomato first!

When I was really young my mother would pick tomatos fresh from her garden and stew them. She would occasionally take a wooden spoon and scoop a stewed peice out and feed it to me straight on the spoon. Thought I had gone to heaven without dying!

[shcisamax]

I wonder if it was not an apple but a tomato that threw Adam and Eve in a tizzy. Same color and they are both fruit.

[bluedog103]

Originally Posted by shcisamax

CT tomatoes taste wonderful with a dab of mayo with salt and pepper. yum.

I still pick a tomato when I'm in the yard near the garden. Nothing better than wiping it off and eating it. I don't even bother with salt. The tomato has to be from my own plants. Those you purchase, even from a farm stand, just don't have the same intense flavor. Must be something they put on them. All I put on my 'maters when I plant them is a little Miracle Grow when I give them their first watering. After that it's just water. Any worms or other critters I pick off by hand, never any pesticide.

[mecarr542]

I agree. You didn't mention that you can't find a good pizza like you get in the Northeast. If I want good Italian food, I make it at home.

[Geewiz]

My dad used to say that "stewed tomatos peeled easier." The funny thing is that my dad wasn't a big fan of cooked tomatos...though, as a nightclub singer, he was fond of waitresses.

[Shirleevee]

Originally Posted by maryanna630

I am originally from SI. My fathers family lived there for three generations. He was a civil engineer at Borough Hall and he raised goats and did organic farming as a hobby. We lived on a six acre farm on woodrow road....long gone now. My husband is from Flatbush.We live in Mexico now and are coming for our first visit 11/1 to 11/15. I would love to meet you for coffee, discuss SI and ask how you lie the Villages. And, yes,we are foodies but we cook!
Maryanna

My friend lived on Woodrow and Bloomingdale Rds....about 15 years ago, right next to the stables........we moved to SI from Brooklyn in 1975 and to TV in 2008..........

[jblum315]

Originally Posted by Joaniesmom

I was hoping for some interesting cooking classes at Lifelong Learning but haven't seen any. Brought my pasta machine along just in case.

I think there is a new cooking class listd in the new Lifelong Catalog (July-DEc 2012. Check out Dudis, the instructor

[mickey100]

Originally Posted by Geewiz

For one meal, it is expensive. For 2 meals plus a kitty fling, not so bad.

Sounds like a great deal to me, especially the kitty fling!

There are many people in The Villages who lament the lack of fine dining. We travel with friends to Orlando or Tampa every so often to have gourmet dining. We've found the meals in the country clubs to be so-so, and the atmosphere is not good - very noisy. We can take advantage of the good shopping outside TV as well. I'm not much of a shopper, but when you need certain sporting goods or nice clothing, there isn't much to choose from around here. I do go up to Ocala just for Dick's and Sports Authority, and Macy's. Wish TV would get some of those stores.

[flakes]

Try Casa Mia in Tarvers

[jagdl]

Price has been mentioned as well as taste buds but another important consideration is how long are people willing to wait. This crowd seems to prefer the sit down, eat, and go method. Good food prepared fresh and prepared right takes time. The meal is meant to be a social event as well as something to savor. Most people seem to prefer the fastest thing the kitchen can put on the table.

[sueandskip]

why move to TV just to complain ?

[jblum315]

This is what I don't understand. Coming from a little town of 20,000 with no tourists or visitors, could choose from everything from I-Hop to diners to steak houses to the finest of Italian cuisine or seafood or French or Portugese or Indian or Thai or Pacific Rim, all within a mile or two. Sometimes expensive but not urban expensive. Rents were high, I know for a fact, but none of the restaurants failed and new ones always opening and the good ones always busy. Why not here? Why not here?