Crunchy conversations

Which veggie is the most important of them all?

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Dinner was about to be served but there was a raging debate in the salad plate.

Tomato (singing): Hi ho, hi ho, I’m the super tomato,/They love me cause I’m bright red,/On pizzas I make a tasty spread./As ketchup or as a spicy sauce,/Indispensable in most meals,/Whether salads or the main course.

Carrot: Hold it! So what if you are bright red? Though I often appear orange, my cousins have an array of colours — purple, yellow, red, and even white.

Tomato: But botanists classify me as a berry. I am not really a veggie.

Onion: That doesn’t make you any better than us. In fact, you are a misfit in our salad. And what about your dark secret? You were once looked upon with suspicion. If anybody drank your juice from a lead container, they would end up getting poisoned.

Tomato: But that is because the acid in me would dissolve the lead. Nobody uses lead containers now.

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Carrot: I, Bugs Bunny’s favourite, have every reason to be considered the most important. I can prevent night blindness in humans as I am rich in vitamin A. And I make their skins glow.

Potato: Now, now, look who is pompous. It is common knowledge that too much of carrots can make the skin of humans appear yellow. I have my store of Vitamin C and other nutrients too. I should be considered the superhero on this plate.

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Onion: Ha, ha, you are a shapeless champion. Those who eat you turn into shapeless couch potatoes too.

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Potato: Only if they eat me as fries and chips and not when they boil or roast me. Did you know, in the Andes, they grow 4,000 varieties of potatoes? Purple, yellow, pink, red, blue, orange, pink with yellow spots and yellow with pink spots.

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Spinach : Hear, hear. May I ask why you have so many eyes on you? To watch your weight or spy out on what’s going on?

Potato: Silly, those are not my eyes! They are actually my vegetative buds. My new shoots can grow from them.

Spinach: Well, don’t forget, Popeye the Sailor Man has become legendary because many children began eating me after watching him. I am rich in iron.

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Chilli (getting angry): Will you all stop blowing your own trumpets? You may be rich in various nutrients, but humans can’t do without me. Even the poor can afford to eat me plain with their chapattis .

Cucumber: Keep your cool, everyone. We are all equally important to humans. We are all unique and, in our uniqueness lies variety: the spice of life.