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I am vehemently opposed to mixing fruits and meats. I don't like pineapple on ham, apple on pork, lemon or orange on chicken, or cranberries on turkey (on the same plate is OK, but not touching). And don't even get me started on mint jelly on lamb. Gross!

 

I love fruit in my cooking. I tried putting pineapple in spaghetti and everyone LOVED it. My coconut rice turned out to be a big hit, despite its original skepticism. I almost always use some form of lemon in tiny portions in my food to give it just a bit of zest. I make home made marinade for chicken with mango and pineapple juices blended with white wine and spices. It all sounds really strange but those meals turned out extremely well.  

I personally love mixing flavors to make a well rounded taste. I like to blend the zesty with the sweet and spicy with tangy to really make your taste buds water. I'm learning to make the flavors a bit less overwhelming, but I love experimenting. Like the other night I tried to fry shrimp coated in a mix of coconut, white wine, butter, lemon juice, and some spices. It was delicious but the flavor was just too strong and my taste buds just wore out and didn't want any more by the time I was finished.

Mixing hearty meats with sweet fruits is an old technique that has reached new levels in modern cooking, and many people, including chefs, are just now catching on. My favorite combonation to date is to mix the spicy rodust flavor of grilled jerk chicken breast with the sweet twang of fresh pineapple and the starchy crunch of fried plantains, take these put them on a sandwhich with a garlic sour cream sauce and shreded iceburg lettuce and you have an award winning combonation. My own recipe, similar to this one, won me a sandwhich competition at my culinary school 2 weeks ago.

I've had somewhat similar dishes but not with the plantains. That sounds absolutely delicious. I just have two questions. When do you open your restaurant and do you do out of state delivery?

i don't know about fruit 'n' meat but i know that fruit with carbs is a surefire way to make me groggy. tomato sauce on pasta? i need a nap! (and yes, tomatoes are botanically classified as a fruit, even though i, myself, still think of them as a vegetable.) crepes with strawberries for breakfast? yum! you bet! now back to bed. and so on.

i can, however, handle fruit combined with the smaller amount of carby goodness that is pie crust. especially if there's some sugary frozen dessert treat to go with it! 

Maybe I'm the weird one but I love all those things together. I love mixing up meat and fruit or anything else for that matter. I love mixing flavors and textures together to make something that taste different and good at the same time. I think that people are just different and some don’t find that appetizing. I had a friend that would eat items on her plate one at a time and wouldn’t start eating something else on her plate till the first item was gone. I think that’s weird.