Saturday, September 08, 2007

Fruit: The Greatest Hits

As much as I love the veggies from my garden, I've got to admit something. You know the food pyramid? The one that recommends 5 servings of fruits and vegetables every day?

Give me the fruit, baby.

The sweetness, the coolness, the freshness, the flavor . . . what isn't there to love about fruit? By divine providence, we don't have to settle for just a handful, but rather we have a nearly endless variety of succulent fruits to sink our teeth into and let their juices drip from our chins. Fortunately, we live in an age when supermarkets bring to our doors the ripe bounty of the world's best fruits . . .

Here's a list of my twenty all-time favorites, with special attention to the top five:

1) Peach: No fruit carries a higher risk: reward ratio. Nothing is as awful as a dry, stringy peach, but NOTHING is more heavenly delicious than a perfectly ripe peach. I prefer the Palisades, Colorado variety.

2) Strawberry: My innate Fosterness nearly constrained me to place strawberries in first place. But they are a very close second. Sitting on the back porch with fresh strawberry shortcake is as close to Foster paradise as it comes.
3) Grapefruit: The three years we owned a home in Phoenix fulfilled a dream for me: owning a grapefruit tree. They were so sweet and juicy that I never used sugar on them. I have many fond memories of slurping out the final drops of grapefruit juice from my bowl, memories which also haunt my dear wife

4) Mango: My two years in Brazil were memorable for many reasons, but sparking my continued love affair with this ubiquitous fruit was one of the most enduring. We used to pluck them off trees along the streets and suck them dry, then toss the pits into the storm drains. (Of course, then we'd be plucking mango strands from our teeth the rest of the day.)5) Blackberry:
I recently renewed this love, which was first forged along Grandma's blackberry hedge in Tennessee. I love the tartness and the texture of these berries . . .



6) Cherry

7) Raspberry

8) Nectarine

9) Orange

10) Grapes

11) Watermelon

12) Kiwi

13) Apple

14) Apricot

15) Banana

16) Pineapple

17) Cantaloupe

18) Plum

19) Cranberry

20) Pear

(Did I forget any?)

So many fruits, so little time.

Which are your favorites?

7 comments:

Kristen said...

Fruits are so very enjoyable that's for sure. Although I will admit that sometimes I don't want to take the risk of nasty fruit. I get upset with the fruit when I spend money on it, and it's no good.
But when it is good... it's good.

Tankfos said...

I will never forget the pineapple I ate in Japan. I had a companion from Hawaii at the time and he had this powder stuff that we put on our pineapple. It was so good I have craved it ever since and my taste buds have been left to nothing but wanting.

Also, the have a fruit in Japan that we don't have here. (at least not in the same fashion) There they call it NASHI. (My mission president claimed that nashi was on the tree of life that Lehi and Nephi ate from) These suckers are the sife of large softballs and sometimes maybe even a small volleyball. The have the shape and texture of an apple but taste so good. If you have had a fuji apple i think it is similar but just not the same.

Goose said...

Mark I like your list, but I feel that raspberries are too low. If I made my top five it would go...
1)Strawberry
2)Mango (Only a fresh Ghanaian mango will do)
3)Raspberry
4)Peach
5)Green Grapes (The best way to eat them is frozen, oh so good)

I also have to agree with Kristen, there have been a few times when I have bitten into a fruit and found only pure nastiness. Most recently it was a peach. Eating fruit can be a risky business, but if you find the gold, oh how sweet the reward.

Danalin said...

I wish that I could handle peaches. The fuzz is just too hard for me to take. I just had a lame orange yesterday and it made me think of your blog and how I had yet to comment.

I am a lover of fruits, but I would say that fruits and veggies are pretty equal for me. Here are some of my faves on the fruit side (no real order):

1) Pineapple fresh in Hawai'i (what Adam is referring to is li hing mui powder and you can get it here in the states, Ad-Bad! I have some in my cupboard, actually)
2) Mango fresh in Hawai'i
3) Papaya - you guessed it - fresh in Hawai'i
4) Kiwi

I love to make a platter of the above fruits and in the middle I have a container of cool whip with some type of berry yogurt mixed in for dipping. It is SO yummy! My comp and I came up with it out of desperation one day.

5)Apple Bananas from Hawai'i are also amazing. Such a better banana than anything we can buy!
6)Raspberries
7)Blueberries
8)Strawberries, of course
9)Cherries fresh from my grandparent's tree
10)Apples

Dad said...

Oh, my friend, you have hit on a great topic. Surely, the Lord blessed us with this heavenly food to make us happy and healthy. I too love fruit of many varieties. Here is my list.

1) Strawberries. There is nothing like a ripe strawberry. Used to pick them in Missouri on strawberry farms and what a treat.

2) Pineapple - Fruit of the Gods. This is truly a heavenly treat. they can really bite you with the acid but oh so good. When I played in a BB tournament in Hawaii in college, we all brought home a pineapple. I went over to Margaret's sorority house and we ate the whole thing. Neither of us could talk for two days as the acidity just tore our mouths up.

3) Apples - good apple is hard to beat. It is amazing how the different varieties taste different. Mush apples....Bad. crisp juicy apples...so good.

4) Peaches - Very, very nice when ripe and juicy. Palisades peaches can't be beat.

5) Bananas - Sweet and tasty, pluse gives you a source of potassium.

6) Green grapes - great snack when nice and cold. No seeds either.

7) Oranges - Has to be the right type and flavor. Not all oranges are good. I put a good tangerine right up there with oranges.

8) Pears - again this is totally dependent on how ripe they are. You want a pear nice and soft and juicy adn this is when it is most flavorable. A unripened pear is more like an apple.

8) Cherries - The black cherries are oh so good to eat as a snack.

Those a a few of my favorites but you can't hardly go wrong with any fruit that is fresh and ripe. I'm sure the Garden of Eden was replete with all these fruits and that probably was all they needed. If I had one food group I could live on I would chose fruit above everything else.

Dad

Goose said...

Dad,

It is actually not the acid in a pineapple that causes pain, but a protein that breaks down the proteins that line your mouth. Also, fruit is a great food group, but it ain't got nothing on MEAT.

Matthew said...

You did forget one of my favorites -- blueberries, or bloobs, as Wendi and I call them because we talk dumb like that a lot.

I've always thought that bloobs taste like their color. They actually taste blue! Kind of like how an orange tastes orange. Is that tautological of me?