ASmith1946 wrote:
>
> >There's not much here I'd
> >disagree with, although I'm not (yet!) convinced that they eat more
> >tomatoes than any other fruit of vegetable. Be interesting to find out,
> >though. Wheat??? Remember it's used , in the form of grain wheat, as a
>
> I guess from a scientific standpoint wheat is a fruit, but it common parlance
> it is usually not classed as such.

No, wheat is a seed. A fruit is a container for seeds. So tomatoes are
fruits, while wheat is not.


I don't have the statistics at hand, but I
> have no doubt that Italians eat more wheat pound for pound than they do
> tomatoes. I don't know how to test your view that Italians possibly eat more
> wheat when it is consumed as a vegetable than they do tomatoes. I'd find that
> difficult to believe.
>
> >>
> >> Finally, we're back to what is a national cuisine. Do the Italians have
> >one?
> >
> >I think they do - in the same way as the French do. It's a collection
> >of different regional cuisines, in the same way.
>
> We're back to this discussion -- which I found useful-- so let me try again.
> Are there commonalities among regional Italian foods? If the answer is yes,
> what are they? Does this include dishes with tomatoes as ingredients?
>
> If the answer is no, then there doesn't seem to be an "Italian cuisine," only
> local cusines-- or are there just individual preferences?
>
> Andy Smith