11 March 2013

TOMATO PRIVILEGE

Sometimes you eat something almost life-changing. It needs to be simple, approachable, fresh, tasty and above all made with love, respect and passion.

Last night as we sat at the table talking and drinking superb wine, our host disappeared into his garden and came back with these tomatoes. Within twenty minutes of plucking them from the vines, he'd prepared an absolutely life-changing tomato salad. There were about fifteen varieties of tomato, all chopped up and dressed with a mixture of pounded basil, some salt-cured anchovies he'd carried back from Sicily a couple of years ago and some fine extra virgin olive oil. Absolute bliss, and if anyone, anywhere, anytime has ever had a finer tomato salad I don't believe them!

(You might just get something similar for the next few weeks at Fishbone in Queenstown as the salad came from the Fishbone garden, prepared by Darren Lovell who is not only Fishbone's chef/owner, but he tends the garden too.)