9/13/2005: Tomatina 2005
 

http://cellar.org/2005/toma1.jpg

Food fiiight! The annual Tomatina festival in Bunol, Spain took place two weeks ago but I was underwhelmed by the wire service photos of it. Then a nice gallery of photos from this year's event appeared.

http://cellar.org/2005/toma2.jpg

They drive into town in trucks loaded with 150,000 tomatoes.

http://cellar.org/2005/toma3.jpg

And the fight begins. And pretty soon it turns into a massive free-for-all. The only rule is that you must break the skin of the tomato before throwing it.

http://cellar.org/2005/toma4.jpg

And everyone is going at all their might, and pretty soon the streets are red.

http://cellar.org/2005/toma5.jpg

It seems to end when there are no pieces large enough to throw.

http://cellar.org/2005/toma6.jpg

It looks like the shopowners have figured out that plastic tarps are a good idea.

http://cellar.org/2005/toma7.jpg

I bet you'd make a killing being a cleaner over there!

...I wonder what they do with it all?

I think the last two pictures give a hint. I suspect that they start hosing the streets and walls at the top of the town and the water and tomato paste flow downhilll until eventually it all ends up in the Bunol river.

Now, this is what I like! Images of half-naked Spaniards slick with tomato! I think an annual food-fight would be really good for a lot of communities. I wonder how I could start one of my own...

So they throw all those tomatoes, smoosh them up real good, rinse off the people, streets, walls, and squeegy the juice down the drains. Drains leading to where? I suspect that's where all that Barilla® pasta sauce comes from.

A few of my mates went to this. Looks wicked fun....

Realizing that the citizenry of Bunol, Spain are nowhere near as fast as those of Pamplona, and that running with the bulls would be a foolhardy thing to do, the Town Council has started the Running with the Tomatoes Festival.

Luckily, this year, only 3 attendees were injured, though one is epected to be in a persistent vegetative state.

ew. yucky.

Welcome to the Cellar, danja. :biggrin:

At least there won't be any trace of skunk smell when they're done cleaning up.

Chunky-style man-salsa, anyone?

Tomato soup anyone....... :D
I love tomato soup.

i love tomato soup, too. Esp. with a grilled cheese! Mmmmmmmmmmmmm :D
Yuhmmm-May! grilled :cheese:

Do you put grilled cheese on top? I've never done that. I grate cheese in my soup, yummmmm :p

"Grilled cheese" is a kind of toasted cheese sandwich in the US.

Leah--you have grilled cheese in Oz, right? Please say you do! It's white bread, spread with lots of butter, grilled butter-side down with slices of cheese (I like sharp cheddar) on top until cheese melts. Add the other slice of buttered bread, flip sandwich over to grill other side. It is ooey-gooey heaven! You can also dunk your sandwich in your tomato soup! Or, dunk your sandwich in ketchup! :yum: Bliss!