The tomato has its origins in Central and South America, where the Incas and Aztecs -- who called it tomato or red water -- used it for cooking and dyeing. However, it hit the big time after the Spaniards brought it to Europe, where it was called the love apple or golden apple.

When its properties as a vegetable were discovered its fame spread from Spain to Italy and then to France. The story goes that the people of Marseilles, who had come to visit Paris on a federation festival, on tasting the tomato, urged restaurateurs to have the fruit sent south (it had reached northern France and Paris only in 1790).

The rest, as they say, is history. Can anyone imagine, for example, north or west Indian cuisine without tomatoes? Or the mixed Uthappam with just onions, or maybe tomato-less sambhar? Almost sacrilegious, what?

Tomatoes are available in numerous forms, from canned to dried to stuffed, to pureed, in sauce form or even in dehydrated form. It can be added or eaten in almost as many ways as one can think of. From a delicious addition to a salad in the raw form to meats or even a traditional alu gobi, the tomato gives dishes its well-known tangy flavour as well as adding a little bit of colour.

Tomato blends with spices and other condiments with great ease and success, and the vegetable in the sauce form has become synonymous with fast food around the world. Tomato varieties are numerous and distinguished according to shape and size. Round and flattened, elongated or oval, some tomatoes are used in cooking while still green.

In India, tomatoes grow in abundance during the winter season, when there is a literal glut of the vegetable. The vegetable ripens very quickly and even rather green tomatoes kept outside in a warm place turn red within a day or so. Otherwise it survives for about 10 days in the vegetable drawer of the fridge.

The tomato is one vegetable that can be used as a bridge between kitchens all over the world from Anchorage to Ambala.

The vegetable itself has a high water content but is low in calories (23 calories per 100 gm). It's rich in vitamin A, B, and C. Diuretic, laxative and refreshing, it is slightly acidic, but adding sugar to the vegetable lessens the acidity. The skin of the vegetable is harder to digest than the rest.