by Vince Staten. This light hearted book provides an entertaining trip through the all American creation, the Supermarket, a place most Americans visit at least once a week. Some of the information is dated, for example "paper or plastic", but for the most part, much is still the same. A sampling of things I learned:
- Peanut butter sales have a perfect correlation with an economic recession.
- High profit items in the supermarket are placed around the periphery since that is where shoppers spend most of their time.
- Catsup is not a spelling error as I always presumed.
- Juice box packaging is apparently a highly esteemed innovative accomplishment.
- Gatorade sports drink got it's name from the college football team for which it was developed to hydrate, the University of Florida Gators.
- French fries DID originate in France.
- Cool Whip is a vile concoction.
- The blue bits in frozen waffles are not blueberries, but rather molded sugar colored blue.
- The Babe Ruth candy bar did not get it's name from the famous baseball player.
- French scientists discovered how to hydrogenate vegetable oils, not the Americans. So we can blame the French for the existence of that putrid trans fat product called margarine. (ironic since I associate the words butter and cream with French cuisine)
The tomato title is relevant because there is a section on tomato travel from the farms in warmer climates to the American supermarket. Without going into the detail, you can probably trust that the tomato in January is OK, but it won't taste like a tomato grown in the summer sold at your neighborhood farmers market.
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