Fruit Basket

Last night, I ate a grapefruit. The beautiful thing about grapefruit is you kind of expect it to taste sour and weird, so you're never disappointed. Not like oranges, where you can definitely tell when you've got a bad one. I've had better luck with clementines than oranges, but this year I bought a bag and it wasn't so great, so I gave up. 

Apples are another reliable fruit. Pick a good variety and you're probably going to have a good experience. And there are so many varieties that you can just stick with reliable old apples and still not get bored.

Bananas are pretty straightforward, too. The biggest problem there is that they ripen too fast, and who has time to go to the grocery store twice a week to buy bananas? This is another advantage of the apple - longevity.

Grapes are great, but I can never get through an entire bag and they don't sell them unbagged so I can choose how many I want. Cherries are the same way. 

Peaches and nectarines are great, too, if you can find a good one and time it right so you get it when it is the right ripeness. That's my problem. I buy them but they aren't ripe yet and somehow I never hit the window for ripeness. They go from rock hard to mush with no in-between. Pears are easier but can still be problematic. I think with peaches and pairs, I'm also at a disadvantage. I remember the good old days of canning season as a kid, with boxes of fruit in the basement, when you could always find a ripe juicy peach or pear. Nothing has been able to live up to the memory.

I could live off of watermelon all summer long. My only complaint with watermelon is there isn't enough center, which is the best part. 

Fresh pineapple is always a delight and I can count on getting 1 or 2 as a Christmas present every time I visit my sister's family for the holiday. It's good that they help me eat it, because too much pineapple will singe your taste buds, which is a real shame. 

I've never really jumped on board the mango and papaya trains. My first experience with mangoes was in the Dominican Republic, and it was just a little too early in the season. All I remember was eating a very 'hairy' mango (really, the fruit was just fibrous). Did NOT love that. I've since had some good mango and no longer outright reject it, but I'm still cautious. In my life, I've only ever had one bite of papaya that actually tasted good, so it's still on my blacklist. 

I've always preferred dried plums and apricots to fresh, for no reason that I can explain. It really doesn't make any sense, but there it is. I think maybe they aren't juicy and/or tangy enough for my liking. Drying them brings out the tangyness, though, which I love.

I've only ever had passion fruit as a juice, or more recently a gelatto. It is divine!!! One of my great loves from the Dominican Republic.

If we're talking berries, I like the flavor of raspberries best, but strawberries are great, too, and much easier to eat. Raspberries have that seed issue. I never really got blueberries until I tried them in Michigan. Who knew they actually had flavor? Still not my greatest love, but good blueberries are pretty tasty. 

And what is the point of all of this? Well, there isn't one, really, except that I ate a grapefruit. But, if you ever need an ice breaker, you can start with "Are you a fruit or veggie person?" and then move on to "which fruits?" It beats talking about politics.