Cherries are eaten by hand. Spit the pits out discreetly into your tightly cupped hand and deposit them on your dessert plate. Fresh figs served as an appetizer with prosciutto are eaten, skin and all, with a knife and fork. 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.
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. 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. 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.