Can I eat fruit?

oceanfloater

I like to eat raw fruit like apples, nectarines & berries. How many of you guys have eaten raw fruit while traveling through India? Other than banana which you can peel...

PeakXV

I go with mosambi, sharifa, mangos, banana, papaya, & pineapple. Not crazy about eating the thin skinned berries & apples .... being a little unsure about the pesticide quantity/quality/usage in India.

__________________
We shall not cease from exploration and at the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started ...and know the place for the first time.
T.S. Eliot

Don't go to India ~ Pre-trip Warnings & Misconceptions?

vishal datta

Fruits in India are seasonal. Please do not buy anything from the roadside while travelling especially by road. Please do not pickup any fruit for which either the season is gone or yet to come. Its quite possible you may fall ill having raw or stale fruits kept in the freezers and sold as fresh ones imported from foreign countries. The vendors can go to any extent to convince you to buy raw or stale fruit just to finish off their stocks.

Prevention is better than cure.

Cheers

Vish

oceanfloater

excellent advice. thank you.

Nick-H

One good reason for carrying a small but sharp pocket knife --- pealing fruit. Although I cut myself, once, doing just that !

In season, mango is one of India's biggest treats.

Another is Jackfruit: it is a huge thing with sticky latex-like juice inside. Try not to buy the pieces that have been ready-cut and attracting flies! But getting those pieces out of the fruit is still a very hands-on job, so I guess there is some risk from the guy's hands: best to take home and wash well!

Guava is good, and very high in Vit-C --- thin-skinned, needs pealing. Papaya is good.

Apples, in this city, are pretty poor and flavourless.

Tender (Green) coconut is always good, at least for the water.

Saporta (custard apple), pomegranate, various weird-looking things that grow on palm trees (apart from coconut)....

I guess that, after decades of our Western supermarket culture, it is hard to know what is in season and what is not! Especially when travelling to a different climate. I suppose the answer is: if you see it everywhere, it must be in season!

For Chennai, I'd say that the street vendors sell better fruit than the supermarkets! But examine carefuly: the ones they give from the back of the pile may not be as good as the ones you saw at the front!

One good way to consume fruit is to drink it. Pick a clean-looking juice stall or restaurant, and specify no ice.

__________________
.


Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

evilnyberg

though i started out cautious (following your basic 'peel or cook' rule) i've got a bit more adventurous with the fresh fruit and veg in the past couple of months, and haven't had any problems at all.

i eat fruit like apples, with peel - through i make sure to properly wash anything i don't peel, including a last rinse with drinking water. (am doing the same with stuff like tomatoes and baby spinach - for salads, without any probs.)

i respect the good advice given by other posters above but also figure, hey, you've gotta live a little! i once read in some book or other that, when it comes to food in india, fortune favours the brave, and figure that's well worth keeping in mind.

so, my advise would be to go for it - using some common sense of course.

a

wonderwomanusa

I've never seen berries or nectarines in India; maybe you'll find them in an imported food stand... I did find one of those in Bangalore and ate a couple of wonderful apples, which had come from California! The Indian apples are all the "Delicious" variety and not so good if you prefer Macintosh!

Whatever you eat, wash it well.

I once had raspberries in Nepal and didn't get sick. Lichee grow in Uttar Pradesh, so you may see some of those if you're in India around April/May.

Amyth

Each tree
Laden with fairest fruit, that hung to th' eye
Tempting, stirr'd in me sudden appetite
To pluck and eat.

- John Milton, Paradise Lost

Eating seasonal fruits, which you would see over-populating the pushcarts and small dedicated fruit stalls, should be a safe bet. Personally, I go bonkers over Mangoes and Cheekus (Sapotas). But I am a little wary of fruits stored in cold-storage of big stores. And..and like everybody said, don't forget to wash every fruit, more than a couple of times to get rid of the pesticides before savouring them.

Fruiticure!!

__________________
Smile -- it makes people wonder what you're up to

Nick-H

We have strawberries sometimes, as expensive as in London! Grapes.

Amyth

Deciding on which breed of fruit to buy is a lot easier than picking up the right ones. Buying fruits is an art in itself, not every picture perfect fruit is ambrosial and vice-versa. Here are some TIPS to buy fruits. I hope you find it FRUITFUL!

Useless thought:
Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables and fresh fruits smelled as good as bacon.

koopamanduka

I love Jackfruit. we have a tree at home and had some nice time cutting it up . Btw its to be had before food or sometimes we just have that for food. Season is almost ending now.

I think people visiting should taste it at least once. Not sure if its available in other parts of the world (I think canned ones were available in US - from Caribbeans).

iloveindia1234

I would say any fruit which is not peeled or cut is fine unless it's not a poisonous fruit
So you should be safe if u can wash it well and eat it.

federica

There is this saying for tropical countries:

Boil it, peel it or leave it.

Most of the fruits like mangoes, bananas, jackfruits etc. you have to peel anyway. I haven't seen nectarines at all. And no berries. You get grapes. I never ate them, but considered that these days I've seen Indian grapes in German supermarkets, it doesn't make any sense to me not to eat them in India, too. At least if you are not concerned about pesticides (they are used extensively with grapes).

Sometimes I ate apples unpeeled (washed and the skin rubbed on a cloth), never had problems. If you can get one, try cashew apples, very tasty