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

Longan
Pomegranates
Mandarin oranges
Alphonso mango
Watermelon

[Jenise]

Bing cherries
Papaya (in Hawaii)
Plums (but not all, specifically the ones that are kind of mottled green on the outside and deep maroon inside--Mariposa?)
Perlette green grapes
Valencia oranges

Hard to keep it to five because I really like all fruit but my favorites are:
FIg
Mango, especially the champagne or Alphonso variety
Guava
Prickly pear
Queen Anne Cherries

[Jenise]

Bing cherries
Papaya (in Hawaii)
Plums (but not all, specifically the ones that are kind of mottled green on the outside and deep maroon inside--Mariposa?)
Perlette green grapes
Valencia oranges

Oh darn, I forgot guavas. The green kind also called feijoda, or something like that, but I grew up calling them guavas. I need six, Jeff.

Bing cherries
Papaya (in Hawaii)
Plums (but not all, specifically the ones that are kind of mottled green on the outside and deep maroon inside--Mariposa?)
Perlette green grapes
Valencia oranges

Oh darn, I forgot guavas. The green kind also called feijoda, or something like that, but I grew up calling them guavas. I need six, Jeff.

Feijoa, aka the pineapple guava. We ran into them (and that Portuguese name) when we were in New Zealand.

Peaches
Raspberries
Bananas
Strawberries (if you can get decent ones)
Apricots

Apples? Apples don't attract me greatly. Slices of crisp, tart apple eaten with sharp cheddar can be pleasant, but on the whole, I just don't get excited about apples. Just think, if it'd been me in the Garden of Eden instead of Eve, the snake would have been wasting his time.

[Jenise]

Feijoa, aka the pineapple guava. We ran into them (and that Portuguese name) when we were in New Zealand.

Interesting; they grow well in Southern California and I one sees a lot of them there, though more in people's yards than in markets. Which is how I grew up eating them--the neighbors had a tree and it bore more than they could eat. Just LOVE them. Might be an odd fruit if you didn't grow up with them, though; what did you think?

Feijoa, aka the pineapple guava. We ran into them (and that Portuguese name) when we were in New Zealand.

Interesting; they grow well in Southern California and I one sees a lot of them there, though more in people's yards than in markets. Which is how I grew up eating them--the neighbors had a tree and it bore more than they could eat. Just LOVE them. Might be an odd fruit if you didn't grow up with them, though; what did you think?

I've spent enough time in the tropics to have eaten quite a bit of guava of various types. Feijoa in New Zealand didn't really ring my bell, but we weren't convinced that it was fully ripe, either: Summer '12 was the summer that didn't happen in NZ (lots of unhappy winemakers we talked to in our travels). It tasted a bit like Kiwi fruit if that's any help.

Mark Lipton

Big eye tuna
Blue fin tuna
Mangos
Strawberries
and then it is a toss up between many others

Big eye tuna
Blue fin tuna
Mangos
Strawberries
and then it is a toss up between many others

Tuna's a fruit?! Who knew...

I've been thinking about my fave five, and it changes according to what's in season. But I'll try to pick just five (in no particular order of faveness):
Wild huckleberries in situ (fresh bear scat nearby heightens the excitement);
Mango eaten underneath the tree it just fell from;
Georgia-grown clingstone peaches, dead ripe and oh so juicy;
Watermelon, plucked from the vine at just the right moment and chilled in a washtub of icewater on a hot Summer's day;
Muscadine grapes, juicy and blue-black, squeezed from the skin into my mouth in the Fall.

Nespole / Loquat is the clear winner, though just about impossible to get here (Borough Market in London is the only place I know)
Others I enjoy a lot are Strawberries, Apples, Grapes and when the mood is right, pineapple

Pears would top my list, and certain not overly sweet melons.

Are avocados considered a fruit! I think they are so that would be high on the list, as would tomatoes.

And coffee is technically a fruit - one of my faves (taken only in derinded dried form, of course)

Lemons and limes feature highly in my pantheon of fruit, as do olives, peanuts and several other nuts, also in reality fruits.

I wasn't going to participate because it's hard to choose but I have eaten fruit for lunch nearly every day at work for years, and I suppose I can narrow it down.

The fruit that I tend to rave about on the rare occasions when it is absolutely perfectly ripe is the Nectarine.

The color, the flavor, the juice, the smell, OMG. Amazing. But the season is short, for REAL nectarines and one day you will have one that is like heaven, and the next day you'll have one that tastes like papier maché

I carry a pocket knife mainly to make it easier to peel an orange in my office. And a navel orange, once again when it's at just the right moment, is very hard to beat. My mouth is watering as I think about it.

I eat apples, bananas, plums, grapes, sometimes pears. Those are all good but not "pantheon" material for me.

The Ataulfo mango which I think is usually described as a "Champagne" mango -- the smallish yellow ones -- those can be just exquisite when at the peak of ripeness.

Hmm, pineapples, nah. Pears really can be great, but it is so hard to buy great ones and eat them at exactly the right moment. One of the best pears I ever ate was picked from a tree in the back yard of a "gîte" we had rented in the Loire Valley, in France. Fruit from the grocery store in France tends to be SO much better than fruit from an American grocery store, mainly because the whole country is made up of demanding consumers. Things are improving here, it's true, but we aren't in the same ballpark as France.

I'd have to jump over to Bill's addition of Avocado -- and certain heirloom Tomatoes.

Failing that I suppose it's tuna fruit and maybe chocolate ice cream fruit...

The fruit that I tend to rave about on the rare occasions when it is absolutely perfectly ripe is the Nectarine.

The color, the flavor, the juice, the smell, OMG. Amazing. But the season is short, for REAL nectarines and one day you will have one that is like heaven, and the next day you'll have one that tastes like papier maché

This is interesting. I also love nectarines, but mainly because they are more forgiving and easier to transport than peaches, which are also very high on my list.

I carry a pocket knife mainly to make it easier to peel an orange in my office. And a navel orange, once again when it's at just the right moment, is very hard to beat. My mouth is watering as I think about it..

I love all the oranges, grapefuits, tangelos, etc etc. And I don't carry a pocket knife but I do transport knives for carving these fruits from home to office. Which is always interesting.

[Jenise]

Nespole / Loquat is the clear winner, though just about impossible to get here (Borough Market in London is the only place I know)

Glad to meet another fan. They're insanely good, but rare here. There were lots of trees in the older Southern California neighborhood I grew up in, but it's rare to see them these days. There are probably new young owners of many of those older homes who have no idea that fruit is edible.

My number one--plump blueberries in season. I love that they are not too sweet.
Bing cherries
white peaches
white nectarine
Hawaiian mangoes from Mrs. Lee's tree

Yellow peaches (and I'm claiming nectarines as a sub-category of peaches)
Strawberries
Blackberry
Table grapes
Pineapple

Ines said:

white peaches
white nectarine

Yellow peaches are my favorite of all fruit, and I won't eat white ones. Is your preference that strong? Most people I know eat both.

White peaches are good if you want to make a Bellini (with Prosecco).

For eating, I like yellow...

"Is your preference that strong? Most people I know eat both"

I think Jim asked this question and the answer is yes, I would eat both but I somehow like that vanilla vibe that is in the white stone fruit. I particularly like white peaches with skin on, paired with fresh raspberry puree and good vanilla ice cream as a summery dessert, a rare but appreciated pleasure.

Glad to meet another fan. They're insanely good, but rare here. There were lots of trees in the older Southern California neighborhood I grew up in, but it's rare to see them these days. There are probably new young owners of many of those older homes who have no idea that fruit is edible.

What? You mean that old, old loquat tree that hangs over Tristan's fence from his neighbor's unkept yard bears edible fruit? That tree is probably 50 years old. I have not tried the fruit. Is it edible when it's falling off the limbs?

Very edible. Tangy and sweet when very ripe, probably closest to mango though different. But one bite and you'll understnad why they're not commercially viable, as there's not much flesh comparatively speaking and each one carries several large (milk dud size, I'd say) seeds that, of course, one would not eat. But what IS there is wonderfully tasty.

Ines
Very edible indeed. I've never picked them off a tree (just off market stalls), but when ripe they outwardly look a similar colour to apricots, perhaps a touch paler. I tend to run a knife through the middle and then run it around the stones in the centre. Then it's easy to peel the skin, but as well as taking the stones out, I'll also scrape out the small amount of white pith they're held in, together with the dark bit at the base.

Then it's either eaten just as the fruit cut into quarters, or cut a little finer to mix with yoghurt. I love the combination of sweetness and acidity (just like a good dessert wine). Very juicy.

One odd thing about the fruit, is it seems to still taste pretty good when bruised (as they're delicate, a little bruising is almost inevitable).

regards
ian

[Jenise]

Ines
Very edible indeed. I've never picked them off a tree (just off market stalls), but when ripe they outwardly look a similar colour to apricots, perhaps a touch paler. I tend to run a knife through the middle and then run it around the stones in the centre. Then it's easy to peel the skin, but as well as taking the stones out, I'll also scrape out the small amount of white pith they're held in, together with the dark bit at the base.

Then it's either eaten just as the fruit cut into quarters, or cut a little finer to mix with yoghurt. I love the combination of sweetness and acidity (just like a good dessert wine). Very juicy.

One odd thing about the fruit, is it seems to still taste pretty good when bruised (as they're delicate, a little bruising is almost inevitable).

regards
ian

The California versions are too small to quarter--at most they'd be 2 inches in diameter and usually smaller, and the skins are part of what you eat.

Jenise
Those sound like they may be what we call Kumquats over here. The Nespole are more the size of a large apricot or plum.
regards
Ian