Recently, my roommate Sam, who usually dines on only the greasiest fast food fare, decided it was time to start picking healthier snacks – so, inexplicably, he brought home a mango! A few nights before, Sam had tried a piece of a mango I had cut up and loved its tartness and texture. Unfortunately, at the grocery store, Sam thought that the harder the mango the better the mango. After a couple of grueling bites out of the under-ripe mango, Sam threw the rest of it away. Sam made a potentially expensive mistake – for his pocketbook and his taste buds.

Every piece of fruit was produced by nature to have slightly different flavor, texture, and degree of ripeness. For the most part, quality control is up to the consumer. Different types of fruit have different indicators that alert the savvy fruit buyer to its freshness, ripeness, and flavor. For example, picking an apple for its hardness and crispness is the right idea. Picking a mango for the same attributes will lead to buyer’s regret.

All Shapes and Sizes

Part of the beauty of fruit is that there are so many available at most grocery stores. Supermarket fruit staples include apples, oranges, and bananas, but more and more markets are introducing more exotic and tropical fruits into their line-ups, including papayas, tangelos, exotic melons, Asian pears, and pluots to name just a few.

Fruits, because of their versatility, are an increasingly common ingredient in recipes like apple raisin crepes, mango-pineapple-lime cheesecake, and Caribbean mango salsa. Even if you are sticking to the tried and true block party fruit salad – remember that mushy strawberries or overly crispy musk melon slices will take away from the allure of the other salad components.