APPLES AND PEARS
At a dinner, an apple or pear is picked up with your hand and placed on your plate. If you can acquire the knack — it's a special talent — by all means 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.

BANANAS
If 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 AND CHERRIES
Go 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.

FIGS
Fresh figs served as an appetizer is eaten, skin and all, with a knife and fork. If the little stem is still on the fig, cut it off (it's a tough chew if you don't). As a dessert, quartered and drenched in orange juice or cream, figs are eaten with a fork and spoon. And served plain, they are halved and eaten with a knife and fork.

GRAPEFRUITS, ORANGES & TANGERINES
Halved grapefruit is eaten with a teaspoon or a pointed grapefruit spoon. At informal meals, the juice can be carefully squeezed out onto the spoon.
There are two ways to peel an orange; both begin with a sharp knife. Method one: a continuous spiral. The second method is to slice off the two ends and cut the skin in vertical strips. Once the fruit is peeled, sections can be pulled apart. If the sections are small, eat them in a single bite; if they are large, use a dessert fork and knife to cut and then eat. Provided it's been precut, a large orange can also be eaten like a grapefruit — with a grapefruit spoon or teaspoon.
Tangerines are peeled by hand and eaten segment by segment. You may want to peel off and discard the white pulpy covering, especially if it's particularly thick.

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.

MANGO AND PAPAYA
A whole mango should be sliced in half (lengthwise) with a sharp fruit knife, then cut into quarters. Hold each piece down against your plate with a fork, skin-side up, and pull the skin away. The mango can then be cut up and eaten with a spoon. You may also be served one that has already been cut — halved, perhaps, with the stone removed but the skin intact. Eat this like an avocado, with a spoon.A papaya, too, should be handled like an avocado or a small melon that has been halved and had its seeds scooped out. It is eaten with a spoon.

MELON
Melon — whether honeydew, cantaloupe, casaba or Persian — is eaten with a spoon. Only when it is skinned and served in wedges is a fork used. The skinned wedge is eaten with a knife and fork. If melon balls are served, with or without syrup, use a dessert spoon.

PEACHES AND PLUMS
Peaches and plums (nectarines, too) are halved, quartered and stoned with a knife. The skin can be pulled off, but it is perfectly acceptable to cut the fruit into smaller pieces with the skin still on, which are then eaten with a dessert fork and knife.

PINEAPPLE
One simple rule: Always use a knife and fork to eat fresh pineapple slices.

POMEGRANATE
Pomegranates are usually served in halves. Carefully extract a couple of the seeds with a spoon and eat them. You should secure the pomegranate half between your index finger and thumb while doing this.

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, of course.

WATERMELON
Watermelon wedges are always eaten with a knife and fork. Any seeds taken into your mouth should be cleaned and dropped into your tightly cupped hand and put on your plate.