How to eat fruit with manners

Apples and Pears
At dinner, an apple or pear is picked up with your hand and placed on your plate. If you can, peel in a spiral fashion. If this proves too difficult, place the fruit on a dessert plate, halve it, core and cut it into smaller pieces, then eat it with a fork and a fruit knife. You can pick up the smaller pieces with your fingers if the meal situation is more informal.

Avocado An avocado served in its shell is eaten with a spoon, and may come with salad dressing in the cavity. If it is sliced on a plate or in a salad, eat it with a fork.

BananasIf a banana is served at the dinner table, peel it, cut it with a knife (a fruit knife if one is available) and eat it with a fork. In all informal situations — picnics, the beach — peel it partway and eat it as a monkey would.

Berries & CherriesGo with the flow. Because there are so many ways to eat these fruits, you can take your pick. Generally, though, eat berries with a spoon, whether they have cream on them or not.

Cherries are eaten by hand. Spit the pits out discreetly into your tightly cupped hand and deposit them on your dessert plate.

Grapes Seedless grapes are no problem: Just eat them one by one. If the grapes do have seeds, place each grape in your mouth, chew, swallow the meat and allow any seeds to drop into your almost-closed fist.

To skin a grape easily, hold the stem end against your mouth, then squeeze the grape between your thumb and forefinger. It will pop — pulp and juice — into your mouth. Leave the skins in your hand to put on your plate.

Strawberries Large strawberries may be eaten whole, grasped by the stem or dipped in powdered sugar (from one's own plate). Eat in a couple of bites and leave the stems on your plate.

If the strawberries are served in cream, use a spoon.

Watermelon and honeydew
To eat these big things with the proper etiquette, cut the fruit into large slices and then carve the edible bits (minus the skin, of course) out into manageable sized pieces which can be eaten with a fork. Seeds should either be picked out prior to picking up the piece with your fork or spit out into your hand and placed into your plate (not spat out, of course). Informally, just take the large slices and launch into them like a monkey would.