I cannot spend a day without eating tomatoes. I like putting some salt on a tomato and eating it like a snack for example. Or I like mixing it with yoghurt.. But out there in the markets, there are so many different types of tomatoes that I was confused for a long time which one to buy.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve known one thing: there is a type of tomato you can buy for cooking, and a type of tomato for salads or breakfast, aka eating raw. That was how my mother used to pick up tomatoes from the market. But seeing the variety here, it feels like there should be a different tomato for anything: for cooking, for grilling, for salad, for breakfast, for lunch, for early evening, for kissing, for holding, for holding… Ok probably not for the last few, but you got my point. And then there is cherry tomato, organic tomato, tomato sold with its branch (must have a specific name but don’t know), Spanish tomato, Finnish tomato.. Oh my, all the tomatoes in the world are here!

But most of them actually have no taste, do they? Even the brightest red one that looks so full of juice and all in the end tastes nothing much. I tried almost all tomato types around in S-market in Central Railway Station, K-market in Kamppi and Stockmannin Herkku. In each of them I finally have 1 type of tomato that I find tasty – but I should be careful still, since they also usually change the places of those so i should not accidentally buy another one.

Below, for instance, the tomato world in Stockmanin Herkku. Sorry about the quality of some of the photos, but I took most of these photos in a hurry since the markets were all full at that moment.

So, even though there are many tomatoes that look very beautiful and are quite expensive (above 4 euros) in Stockmann, the one below is my favorite and incidentally, is cheapest as well. It has a sweet and sour taste just like a tomato should taste, it is medium hard, you can use them in breakfast or in salads or in any other time when you want to have some raw tomatoes.

The label is Eldorado. By the way, I found out that Eldorado has a few recipes that you can make (of course using Eldorado products) in their website: http://www.eldorado.fi/ajankohtaista/fi_FI/tapas/ Anyway, this type is called (on the package) “pisara tomaatti” (I checked what pisara means in English, it is “teardrop”, well, below you can see that it does actually look like a teardrop.

And below are the ones in K-market Kamppi. You can also find orange, yellow and green tomatoes here. If you want to buy some tomatoes for cooking, then the one on the left in the middle photo is quite good – it is Finnish.

But my favorite in K-market Kamppi is still the cherry one. It’s Pirkka and it’s Spanish if I remember correctly. You can’t miss it, it has a triangular package. Try to find the ones with the smallest pieces!

Well, here, that was the story of tomatoes in the market chains of Helsinki. I don’t know about you, but if you are a tomato freak like me, then it becomes the most important thing in the market! And there might be a more conscious method for choosing the best tomato, but I just trust trial and error method for myself!