I took apples, because I could eat an apple or two every day and not get tired of them.
I also chose grapes, as I didn’t know about the wine exception when I voted, but really nice fresh grapes are refreshing and tasty. I might have switched to cherries if I knew about the wine exception, though.
Lastly, I took the humble lemon, because a lemon a day keeps the scurvy away, and it’s used in so many different recipes, I shudder to think of the things I’d have to give up. While limes are nice too, I figure I can use a lemon anywhere I’d use a lime and muddle through somehow.
I get all I want, regardless of season? Awesome! Oranges/clementines, cherries, and watermelon. I’ll miss lemonade and all the lemon-flavored stuff, though.
Yeah, lemons and limes are way too versatile as ingredients to both desserts, cocktails and regular savory dishes to leave off the list.
My third would probably be… pineapple. As far as I eat fruit (not very much really), pineapple is probably the one that has the most versatility. I like eating it as-is, and it’s a good cocktail ingredient, and it’s a component of plenty of good desserts as well.
Changed my mind… third would be grapes, because I imagine sometime in the next five years, wine, champagne, wine vinegar, chicken Marsala, sherry vinegar, grape jelly, raisins, grape juice, communion wine, verjus, and grapeseed oil might be something I’d like. Plus, cream of tartar (made from grape-derived tartaric acid) is used in a fair number of baked goods.
There is a good variety in apples so that works in their favour. I love cherries so they stay. I enjoy a nice cocktail every now and then and limes are useful in many, also can be added to a marinade.
Cherries, blueberries and clementines. I’m feeling very good about my choices. I’ll miss bananas a little bit, but I have such a narrow banana goodness window anyway, that I usually end up throwing away more than I eat.
Oooh, tough one. Because I don’t eat fruit. I think I *might *have had a banana last year, so I’ll go with banana. And **coconut **is an easy one, since we’re counting it as fruit and I do love me some Almond Joy bars. As for the third? I can’t imagine what I would want to eat. Hmmm, check the list again…I’ll go with lemon, because I like to squeeze it on fish.
I cook a fair amount, at least in the winter; but I only rarely use lemon or lime. I know they’re common in a lot of dishes, but I often think those dishes are better without them (there are exceptions, of course.)
If I want a bit of acid in something, I generally use one vinegar or another, or else sour salt (citric acid crystals). If I want a fruit flavor in a cooked dish, I actually tend towards apricot; but although it was a wrench to leave that off my list, peaches will usually work, and I sometimes use them instead anyway as it’s even harder to get good apricots.
Cooking styles and tastes vary greatly; so I don’t think the difference is between people who cook and those who don’t, but between those who cook in certain styles and those who don’t. There may also be a difference between people who generally eat a lot of fresh fruit as itself, and those who think of it mainly as an ingredient.
As a teetotaler I insist I get lemonade if you all get wine. It’s only fair.
In any case I picked peach, strawberry, and blueberry. Many peaches and strawberries are now tasteless, but good ones are great, and I get to have the good ones all year round so it’s easy. I relive my childhood with a peach tree in my back yard and it’s producing all year round. I’d miss apples, but as pumpkin doesn’t count I get to have pumpkin pie. I do like lemon or lime in my diet Coke, but I can live without it.
Bananas, strawberries, and guavas. The latter because the guava turnovers at La Segunda Bakery in Ybor City are too wondrously delicious to consider giving up, even if I only get them a few times a year.
I eat apples almost every day, but nope, they’d lose out to the occasional availability of guava turnovers. Though from the OP, it sounds like I’d be able to have them all the time if they make my list.
What about products made with byproducts? For example the Italian liqueur limoncello is made with lemon zest (part of the peel), and the triple sec liqueur everyone enjoys in margaritas is made from a specific sort of orange peel.
Or more interestingly, some commercial types of “almond” flavor are actually derived from peach and/or apricot pits.
Pectin, as used in jams, jellies and other stuff is derived commercially from either apples or citrus peels.
Would we have to choose those fruit if we wanted to have those products, even though we have no desire to actually eat oranges, lemons, apples, or peaches?
Like say… if we wanted strawberry jam, would we have to choose strawberries, lemons AND apples, because you use lemon juice and pectin?
Very tough choices here. If it were 4 fruits for 4 years, it might be a bit easier but those aren’t the parameters of this project. Ultimately, I went with the ones just below the colon:
Blueberry - My all time favorite berry. Great with a bit of yogurt and something crunchy like granola or (in a pinch) Frosted Flakes. Can be eaten alone or in a pie as well.
Coconut - I don’t eat a lot of coconut alone, but I love me some German chocolate cake.
Apple - Apple pie, apple cider, apple crisp, caramel apple cake, baked apples, apple strudel, or just an apple. It’s kind of a good “all around” fruit.
I’ll miss citrus and bananas for sure. And I love pineapple - pineapple and Canadian ham is so good on pizza.
Blackberries, limes and peaches. That was tough. Have to give up oranges so that I can make key lime pie and have lime for my Thai chicken soup. Will miss coconut milk in Thai dishes though.
Strawberries and watermelon (please pass the salt) are two of my favorites. I picked apples for the many, many varieties. Please throw in some apple pears.