THIS IS HOW A HEART BREAKS

I rarely cook when it’s too hot to eat.  Fruit and raw vegetables dominate my diet in the summer months, and let me tell you: there is nothing like an ice-cold summer tomato (or three) when temperatures are soaring.

I made an uncommon Tuesday trip to souq this week, and I had plans to buy a few kilos of tomatoes and fruit to last me through the first week of Ramadan, which is slated to start here on Thursday or Friday.  I know that protein is important when making up for a day of not eating, and I’m also stocked up on lentils, dried beans, etc… but at the end of a long, hard day of fasting and dehydration-induced vertigo, I will run for a glass of fruit juice and a few succulent summer tomatoes.

Squeezed in the front seat of a taxi next to a pungent, middle-aged man, visions of juicy, fire-engine red tomatoes danced through my mind like the fantasies that I’m supposed to suppress during Ramadan.

I got out of the taxi and bolted over to my favorite veggie stand.  I salam-ed Veggie Man, grabbed a basin, and selected some apples, oranges and grapes.  I was saving the best for last, you see.

Handing my fruit over to be weighed, I grabbed a fresh basin and made my way over to the vegetables.  There I found green tomatoes.  My heart sank, and I muttered to myself in English.

When I regained composure, I managed to ask Veggie Man if he had any other tomatoes in stock.  At this particular veggie stand, there’s a back-room of ask-and-ye-shall-receive vegetables which are normally fresher and of better quality than the ones out on display.  When he said no and furrowed his brow as though to share in my burden, I had to concede and buy not-quite-ripe tomatoes.

I ate two tomatoes as that photo was loading, and let me tell you… I may have to switch to peppers.