@wordfather I'm happy to tell you there are HUNDREDS of apple cultivars, actually. Some are extremely local, others are now called "heritage" cultivars (meaning they fell out of demand and are now only grown by individuals or as preservation), and some are nationwide, like Gala and Granny Smith. If memory serves me, we even still have daughter trees from an apple tree planted by Thomas Jefferson. Rather hilariously everyone who tries to eat its fruit goes "EW this is awful!!! They ATE this?!" and has to be told that no, apples in Jefferson's time were actually mostly grown for hard cider. Jefferson's cultivar is optimized for getting drunk.
Which brings me to why we have so many: they're good for different things. Granny Smith is often considered "the apple pie apple" because it's hard and tart, so it holds up to the oven and also doesn't quickly turn into sweet-on-sweet-on-sweet. Galas are widely considered "eating apples" now (means they're the ones you just grab off the counter and eat, rather than preparing them), but when I was a kid, McIntosh held that crown and I'm kind of sad they've gone out of fashion. Golden Delicious are notorious for being awful to cook with because they're too soft and fall apart quickly. I guess if you were doing something that doesn't need structural integrity they'd be okay, but they're also kind of bland.
Red Delicious used to be very good, when I was a kid. They were "the lunchbox apple." Unfortunately over the last 20 years growers have selected for redder and redder and redder and forgotten the delicious part, and what we've ended up with is insanely red and...not much else. Tasteless. Kind of mealy. Red Delicious tastes like when you finally get to go outside after school or work and it turns out the weather looks beautiful but feels sucky. You finally get your teeth through that stupidly thick skin and are greeted by the day after your birthday. If Red Delicious was a person its personality would be The Stanley Parable. It minmaxed its entire identity with max on RED and min on literally everything else. They are offensive simply by virtue of how inoffensive they are. They are an apple designed by committee. If I was the president of the United States and I wanted to tell another world leader I hated their guts without starting an international incident I would have them for dinner with an apple-heavy menu that used only Red Delicious. Capitalism ruined a perfectly good apple.
And finally, I would like to share with you a classic Pennsylvania dessert, which I am aware sounds utterly bizarre but it's actually really good: baked apples and cheddar cheese.
(People in the notes are probably going to be like "this would be better with XYZ cheese" and they're probably right. Applewood-smoked Gouda and apples is amazing. But that's not the classic version.)
Take your apple and put it with the stem facing up and the blossom end facing down and take the stem out. Cut it in slices about half as thick as your finger. You can core it first if you want to be fancy, but I always just trim the little seed bits out of the rounds after I've cut them.
Lay these on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle some cinnamon and brown sugar. (If you don't have brown sugar in your country, which is a devastating turn of events I've heard does happen, white sugar will do. It's just not as good.) Lay a slice of cheddar over each apple round.
Now if you were in the US I'd say "bake at 350 for six to eight minutes or until the cheese is melted but not brown," but you are not in the US. DuckDuckGo tells me this is about 175 for you.
Wait a minute or two so you don't burn yourself on melted cheese. Nom.
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