Sometimes the best food, is simple food, done right. Alice Waters, founder of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, CA, takes the best foods in season and serves them at their peak. I heard she once served a radish on a plate with a bit of salt as an appetizer. Fruit, at its ripest and most delicious, is one of the culinary delights in this world. I recently made a fruit salad with watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple and blueberries, adorned with a simple syrup flavored with green tea. According to the recipe I used "all a fruit salad needs to make it sing is a simple syrup." Simple syrup is simple indeed. One cup of water, 1/2 cup sugar. Combine in a saucepan. Boil until sugar is evaporated. Cool. That's it. The part where it "sings" is how you flavor it. I put green tea flavored with pomegranate and lemon rind, but you could also use orange rind, mint, a vanilla bean, Earl Grey Tea (or Jasmine), rum or another liquor. Add the amount to taste. The secret to a good fruit salad is (duh!) good fruit. I heard that if the watermelon has a yellow spot on it, it will be sweeter. Melons should be heavy, the button should give slightly and it should have a fruity aroma when it is ripe. Pineapples should also be fragrant when you slice them. As for grapes, blueberries, cherries and the like, I always try to taste one in a bag before I buy them. There is nothing more aggravating than buying a bag of fruit that is sour! I scooped out my melon with a melon baller, sliced up the pineapple, added the blueberries last (they are the most delicate), tossed them all with the simple syrup and added chopped mint leaves. I even made a watermelon basket out of the melon. A long skinny one would have been easier, but my melon was short and stout so that's the basket I ended up with. Enjoy the fruits of the summer while they're at their peak.
"Papayas should never be refrigerated."
Alice Waters
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