I had a whole deleted other paragraph in the OP about how everyday language isn’t beholden to strict scientific nomenclature, in which I mention tomatoes specifically. A chef probably doesn’t care about the exact botanical definition of “fruit”, and is more concerned that tomatoes pair well with savory foods like other vegetables do, so forcing the distinction in this case would only confuse things.
I know I’m also undercutting my own joke, but calling whales (and humans) “fish” in the cladistic sense, while true, is also not very helpful.
As far as I’m concerned, culinary terminology will never override scientific definitions. The full phrase should be “tomatoes are used like a vegetable because of their relatively lower sugar content” rather than “tomatoes are vegetables”. To me it’s like someone living out of their car and calling it a house. Sure you live there and you do things in there that you would in a house, but that’s still a car at the end of the day.
Intelligence is knowing whales are fish. Wisdom is not putting a whale in a fish salad.
I had a whole deleted other paragraph in the OP about how everyday language isn’t beholden to strict scientific nomenclature, in which I mention tomatoes specifically. A chef probably doesn’t care about the exact botanical definition of “fruit”, and is more concerned that tomatoes pair well with savory foods like other vegetables do, so forcing the distinction in this case would only confuse things.
I know I’m also undercutting my own joke, but calling whales (and humans) “fish” in the cladistic sense, while true, is also not very helpful.
As far as I’m concerned, culinary terminology will never override scientific definitions. The full phrase should be “tomatoes are used like a vegetable because of their relatively lower sugar content” rather than “tomatoes are vegetables”. To me it’s like someone living out of their car and calling it a house. Sure you live there and you do things in there that you would in a house, but that’s still a car at the end of the day.
Experience is knowing Muktuk is delicious and works on a salad if cut small enough.