I think it's a fairly pleasant smell. Maybe not an overripe one.

Was there perhaps some raw-tomatoe-induced trauma in your childhood?

According to my mom, there wasn't any, and I have never ever been willing to eat the thing, even when I had no idea what was in my food. There are a few members of my mom's family who dislike raw tomatoes, but only the one cousin who is at the level that I am. He's the only one who truly understands.

There are all sorts of vegetables that I didn't get to taste until after I moved out of my parents' place. Broccoli was a revelation, as well as spinach.

Just went and cut a fresh tomato, to see what the problem might be. I think I'll have to back tommyrot's Ur-trauma theory.

Fresh sliced tomato smells like ... well ... nothing much.

I have never eaten fiddleheads. I always vaguely wondered, seeing them in grocery stores, if someone was trying to pull my leg, selling weeds as food. Not having any idea what okra looks like when it's at home, I would probably feel the same way about whole okra pod-thingies. (Also, things like beet greens.)

Whereas, I have eaten white asparagus a few times, and it was fab! Even better when I questioned why anyone would smother such a delicacy in mayonnaise (Spaniards all do this), and ate it by itself.

Never heard of Italian Beef, although I have eaten a number of greasy-spoon and hoity-toity analogue sandwiches. (Tend to prefer the hoity-toity, I must admit.)

Maybe if I hated tomatoes more, I'd be better at math.

Yeah. There's some clear thinking.

There might be a difference between your typical American grocery store tomatoe and other varieties. I've read that American tomatoes are a lot more bland.

Not having any idea what okra looks like when it's at home,

Am I the only one who sees the word "okra" and thinks of killer whales? Probably.

All my raw tomatoes belong to, well, whomever wants them. More for you guys.

Oh, and the Israeli tomatoes are supposed to be great (according to, well, whomever actually likes the vile things), so it's definitely a 'me' thing.

Some buffista with the Cooking-Thing is scannning this portion of the thread and concocting a Perfect Bufistas Recipe.

Good luck. Just from the last 12 hours or so, I'd think that would be as difficult as the Perfect Buffista Artist search in Music some time back.

Interesting idea. An American Beefsteak t'mater is what I cut.

t adds several varieties of tomato to shopping list, because of the AR/OC thing