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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Fruit Salad




I fancy myself a connoisseur of fruit. It is not only that I love to snack on fruit all throughout the day it is also the fact that I can slice or dice the fruit in a manner of seconds. There is probably not a fruit that you can find that I do not like. Well, unless you happen to stick your thumb into a pie and pull out a plum or a cherry or a grapefruit. Admittedly, not all fruit is to my liking but that does not change the reality that I am a connoisseur of fruit.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. People have been testing the validity of this statement for years. Is it true? I claimed to be a fruit connoisseur not a scientist. Yet, I do know that apples are a delectable delicacy. Of course, I think that Americans sometimes forget how wonderful apples are just because ‘they are as American as apple pie.’ Apples have become too familiar. That’s exactly why we must encourage children to create fun snacks out of apples. For example, apples make great lady bugs. Just use some toothpicks to attach raisins onto their red skin. My most recent favorite way to munch on this scrump-diddle-y-umptious treat is to dribble honey across the creamy white of the apple. There are so many ways to incorporate this sweet crunch into one’s day. I say,
“An apple a day keeps the summer munchies away!”

One fruit that I adore and have dubbed its flavor to be ‘what the sun would taste like if it had a flavor’ is pineapple. Only a couple of summers ago, I could not enjoy this strangely textured and acidy sweet fruit. I even had traveled to Panama and had foregone eating this mouth watering goodness. I was happily content to watch my friends greedily gobble the pineapple down. Only days after returning, I attended a baby shower. The only thing there that I would even consider eating was pineapple. After painfully swallowing the last bite of this horrid fruit, I thought my misery was over. It figures that somehow over that hour my tongue decided to acquire a liking towards pineapple. Now, pineapple and I are good friends. We are such good friends that while in college I got sent a pineapple in the mail. It was definitely a unique gift to give to a fruit-deprived college student. Unfortunately, all I had to cut the pineapple with was a knife blade that was about as long as my pinky. It took some time, but I finally got my little bit of sunshine and shared it with all the girls because nothing was getting between me and eating that pineapple.

As to the fruit that I am not especially fond of, I should probably explain to the best of my ability. First of all, I really cannot explain my dislike of plums because I have not quite figured it out myself. Perhaps it is the texture or maybe it is the flavor. You never know I might surprise myself and suddenly acquire a liking of the plum and then I will be begging that you pull a plum out with your thumb. Cherries on the other hand are a fruit that I have had a deep seated loathing for since I was a child. Blame it on the cherry flavored medicine. Yes, I know. Everyone cries,
“Fresh cherries are nothing like the medicine.”
Prove it. No, I will not try a tasting test. Ask my father about my abhorrence of cherry medication. When I was a baby, he had to give me medicine while screening his body with a shower curtain because I would show my dislike of the medicine by throwing it back up. Cherries and I are not friends. Grapefruit is something all together different. Oranges I like. Grapefruit are just much to tart for me and I know sugar will sweeten them up. Yet, I believe in enjoying the true flavor of a fruit. I thought it would be in my best interest to explain my odd aversion to these considered delectable fruits by some.

Fruit is the candy of the natural world. I can think of nothing as divine as sitting in a forest glade with strawberry juice dripping down one’s chin while bugs hum by on their little business missions. Not only does the fruit flavor categorize as the candy of the world but it also can claim to be the natural gems of the world. I have never seen anything so pretty as the deep ruby red of a cherry (I may dislike cherries but their color is fantastic) or the dark violet blue of a blueberry. No food group in the world shares the rainbow of colors as fruit do. Fruit should be admired for more than just its taste but also for its color. Therefore, I claim the title fruit connoisseur.