What are your five favorite (fresh) fruits? For raw eating..

I tend to favor many of the citrus ones (oranges and grapefruit) the most. My top five would likely be:

Oranges
Blackberries
Grapefruit
Seedless grapes
Strawberries

One fruit I seem to not like as much as most people are apples. I can snack on them, but they don't really float my boat the way the other fruits do.

Same with pie. I'd much rather have a lemon, blueberry, cherry or chocolate pie before an apple pie. Not that there aren't delicious examples of apple pie. But I never find them "seductive" in the way I do a nice lemon or blueberry pie. I think it's the fleshy "crunch" of an apple within the otherwise captivating crust that somehow distracts me and turns me off. I like pies such as lemon or chocolate where the filling is already softer in nature and mingles easier with the top and bottom crust. I guess I just don't like to "chew" when I'm eating pie...

Oddly, I do love champagne and find that the predominant "flavor" in many of them resembles apples. So go figure...

Jeff

Plums (Santa Rosa) nectarines, peaches, Oranges navel, apples.

Peaches
Red seedless grapes
Fuji apples (no tart apples, please)
Plums
Papaya (call me Kramer. )
Can I please have a sixth? Bing Cherries. Thanks.

[Robin Garr]

Peaches (but only fresh regional in season, please)
Strawberries (ditto)
Pears
Fresh figs
Grapefruit (fresh Florida white)

One fruit I seem to not like as much as most people are apples. I can snack on them, but they don't really float my boat the way the other fruits do.

I very much agree with you on this. I've been harping on about this for years. Apples are just not luscious and flavorful enough for me to really get excited. Yet just like you, my wine tastes differ as I lean towards the more restrained and austere wines.

But for fresh fruit, peaches, melons, oranges, grapefruits and cherries would have to lead the list. So much flavor!

Hard to pick out - I enjoy quite a few when in season. Let's see:

Oranges
Cherries
Strawberries
Peaches
Blackberries

I think that is probably it. Next on the list would probably be Golden Delicious apples.

Apples
Peaches
Pears
Red seedless grapes
Strawberries

[Robin Garr]

I very much agree with you on this. I've been harping on about this for years. Apples are just not luscious and flavorful enough for me to really get excited. Yet just like you, my wine tastes differ as I lean towards the more restrained and austere wines.

May I join you guys? This states exactly how I feel about apples (and about AFWE wines), and it's reassuring because I've always felt something must be wrong with me to be so bored by the all-American fruit!

I very much agree with you on this. I've been harping on about this for years. Apples are just not luscious and flavorful enough for me to really get excited. Yet just like you, my wine tastes differ as I lean towards the more restrained and austere wines.

May I join you guys? This states exactly how I feel about apples (and about AFWE wines), and it's reassuring because I've always felt something must be wrong with me to be so bored by the all-American fruit!

Well, that's it, Robin. You're now shunned by both the AFWE and All-American moms.

Mark Lipton

cantaloupe
peach
raspberries
cherries
pineapple

(when in other parts of the world, mango would be on my list, but the ones I can get here... mheh)

pineapple

(when in other parts of the world, mango would be on my list, but the ones I can get here... mheh)

So you're less picky about pineapple than mango?

We buy both in these current months between winter citrus and Summer Bounty. And we enjoy them both, despite the fact that they are clearly only a shade of their Real Tropical Glory. But if I had to be pressed, I would say the mangos are more exciting and more reliably ripe than the pineapples. Although that could also be an issue of my sources vs. your sources.

[Robin Garr]

Well, that's it, Robin. You're now shunned by both the AFWE and All-American moms.

No, I wasn't clear. I love AFWE wines! I am a card-carrying member of the AFWE. I just cant warm up to apples, that's all. A nice, ripe juicy pear is fine, though. It's like an apple that wins.

pineapple

(when in other parts of the world, mango would be on my list, but the ones I can get here... mheh)

So you're less picky about pineapple than mango?

We buy both in these current months between winter citrus and Summer Bounty. And we enjoy them both, despite the fact that they are clearly only a shade of their Real Tropical Glory. But if I had to be pressed, I would say the mangos are more exciting and more reliably ripe than the pineapples. Although that could also be an issue of my sources vs. your sources.

Well, like "Pirate" Prentice's banana tree, we have the occasional hothouse pineapple for service with our quail here. For whatever reason, we get some genuinely ripe pineapples showing up here in the warmer months, so I can nosh on them with pleasure, whereas the pallid, insipid things that pass for mango here are uninspiring year-round.

Mark Lipton

blueberries
apples (freshly plucked from the tree)
apricots
Bing cherries when the skins still snap
raspberries still warm from the sun

a perfectly ripe locally-grown peach is my absolute favourite - so juicy you have to eat it over the sink, 'cause the juice runs down your arm

mango, preferably Alphonso (ripe or in a green mango salad)

clementines from Morocco (any others are good, but not great)

apples, but only Macintosh or Granny Smith - I loathe Delicious and their many progeny - if it's got 5 bumps on the bottom it doesn't go in my mouth

cherries


Oddly, I love dried apricots, but don't like fresh.

Oddly, I love dried apricots, but don't like fresh.

I agree. It's very tricky to get good fresh apricots, even in the regions where they grow. They are very fragile and the texture is very hit-or-miss as it easily tilts towards mealy. I have found that especially problematic because the textural drop off is extremely steep from the best examples.

I'm just curious here Jeff, is a "desert island" involved?

Lychees
Figs
Mandarins
Pomegranates [best eaten when bare chested]
Grapes

Pomegranates [best eaten when bare chested]

Too much information there.

[Robin Garr]

Peaches (but only fresh regional in season, please)
Strawberries (ditto)
Pears
Fresh figs
Grapefruit (fresh Florida white)

As I look over this list, it intrigues me that four of the five - pears being a possible exception if you're willing to overlook food miles and your carbon footprint - are really good only fresh in season. The off-season offerings of peaches, strawberries, figs and grapefruit aren't (to me) worth eating.

Viewed through this lens, I almost have to add a sixth: Satsumas, a specific variety (?) of mandarins/tangerines that are generally available only in December and January. I can't put my finger on quite what it is, but those are an order of magnitude more enjoyable than any other citrus - including tangerines - for me.

[David M. Bueker]

Raspberries
Blueberries
Apples (only fresh from the local farm in fall please - I have to get Cortlands and Golden Delicious or my year is not complete)
Peaches (ditto the apples, but in summer)
Strawberries

I have never liked the texture of pears. Table grapes bore me. Plums are good but too variable, even fresh from the farm. I could live without citrus.

Peaches
Strawberries
Royal Anne Cherries
Pink Grapefruit
Locally grown red grapes, seedless

Apples (Best varieties IMO in season only, avoid Delicious)
Pears (Comice or similar)
Bananas
Sweet cherries (yellow or black)
Peaches (as others, local and in season only, white first choice, Champion or similar)

[David M. Bueker]

ooh...I forgot cherries. Drat.