As in the fruit. After I ended up in the hospital last month for what turned out to be heart failure in an unplanned 2 week stay smack dab in the middle of COVID-19 lockdown, I’ve had to change my diet considerably including no more indulging in salty potato chips in 1000 different disgusting flavors.
I’ve only eaten bananas for the last few decades for fruit and have newly discovered the dizzying array of differently-tasting varieties.
What is your favorite?
I am no full-on apple connoisseur, but out of all the ones I’ve tried Pink Lady (Cripps Pink) are still number one for me. Crisp and sweet but with a wonderful tart taste.
I ended up liking Rockit, Gala and Honeycrisp the most. I didn’t like Pink Lady’s tartness.
Crazy talk! ;)
I dig apples but haven’t eaten a lot of them lately. I did get heavily into pineapples there for a while which I think epitomize that really sweet yet sour combo, if you get nice ripe ones.
I like my apples nice and crunchy and here Elstar are very common and tasty. Otherwise Nicoter/Kanzi are quite nice.
Anyone tried the Piñata variety? Looking forward to trying Cosmic Crisp.
I always pick Jazz (don’t know if you have those in the USA/Canada?). Sweet, chrunchy and fresh. My wife on the other hand likes Granny Smith, which I simply cannot eat: way to sour…
Braeburn. Crisp and not too sweet.
Growing up as a kid in the 80s of South Africa we always had Granny Smith or Golden Delicious apples in our household, so those became my default apples of choice. Any time I was confronted with a red apple (sadly I don’t know which kind it was) it was a terrible floury soft variety that I hated. So for decades thereafter red apples = horrible apples in my naive brain.
Only a few years ago I decided to actually question my ingrained assumption and lo and behold a whole new world of zesty crunchy apple goodness opened up to me!
Overall my impression is that the last 2 decades have brought a lot more varieties to the fore and marketing / brand awareness has increased immensely. What used to be red or green apple, has turned into a plethora of awareness that we see exemplified in this thread.
Compare that to most other fruit where I’d be hard pressed to differentiate between any strawberry / pear / lemon variations!
I had a fuji apple imported from Japan at Robuchon and it was amazing.
Tbh the quality of fruit and veg from Japan and certain Mediterranean areas is light years ahead of produce available in Western markets. Quite hard to describe if you’ve only ever eaten mass produced supermarket varieties chosen for disease and insect resistance, shelf life and being transport friendly.
I normally cut my apples and make small fruit salads to last a couple of days, needed after an accident I had where I damaged my front teeth, so not too confident biting into hard fruits anymore. My go to these days is the pink lady apples also. One of the plusses I found is they don’t suffer from oxidation near as quickly as my other two preferred options - the Jazz apple or the Sundowner (which is related to the Pink Lady).
Fujis are definitely the go-to apple for sweetness and crispness. They don’t have a particularly robust flavor, but that makes them easy to eat on their own. Any apple with “delicious” in its name is a mushy travesty that should only be used for baking. And I do like a nice, crisp, deep green, mouth-puckeringly-tart granny smith.
I used to like the tart green apples or the more mellow yellow ones. But these days apples and other fruit cause me instant gingivitis if they are not in a can so I avoid them. (Canned fruit is “safe” for whatever reason.)
Gingivitis is bad for the heart:
[ed]
I think there is a link between gingivitis and heartburn/acid reflux as well.
Woah I didn’t know about the gingivitis thing.
I used to love Fuji apples. They taste great and also age better than the red delicious, which would get mushy. But I stopped eating a lot of fruit just in general when I started integrating more keto concepts into my diet. I still eat a little fruit, they’re still great sources of vitamins and fiber.
But the gingivitis news is something else. And yea, I’ve also heard a lot about the link between heart health and dental health.
I tried all of the organic varieties I could get my hands on and mostly settled on Galas. They are a nice blend of crisp and sweet, with some appealing (but not mushy) pear-like qualities thrown in.
It IS amazing how many varieties of apples have exploded onto the scene in the last 10-20 years. Americans are FINALLY getting more sophisticated about what we eat & so the market can now support something more than the horrific red delicious or generic green apples.
Now if we could do the same thing for OTHER fruits and veggies that’d be great too. Tomatoes especially because they suffered the same kind of mass market production and profit optimized decline that apple varieties had in the US.
Diego
I’m not much of an apple eater, but my wife loves her Honeycrisps.
I do on rare occasions have a Granny Smith hard cider.
Figure out your local fruit picking seasons. Most apples in the USA are picked in late summer/fall, so we are pretty much at the low ebb of freshness and flavor. Are my area (South Central PA) we are in berry season and moving into peach/plum/nectarines/melons soon. Coming from just bananas, they should be pretty flavorful for you.
Also, if you like the apples you are eating now, you will really like September.
Korean apple-pears — the big yellow ones that come in Styrofoam nets, not the smaller green ones — own true apples of all varieties.
Your wife is a refined woman of good taste.
Honeycrisp is the only answer.
Level of sophistication among Americans may depend on which area of the US, which particular neighborhood, etc.
I.e. do you live in a food desert? Your selection may be limited.