I didn't care about watermelon until I moved to the South. I think I'd just never been hot enough to appreciate it.
Now I love it. Plain is good, but I'm trying to think of new ways to use it. A few nights ago we had it with chile powder and lime juice, the way Mexicans serve jicama, and it was delicious. I made eggplant parmigiana for the first time, all rich and cheesy, and the spicy cool watermelon was the perfect foil.
I have created in my head a salad consisting of grilled chicken, romaine, watermelon, green onions, and spicy peanut dressing. Tomorrow I'll try to make it happen, and if it's successful, I'll post the recipe.
Oooh--good picture.
ReplyDeleteLast night we had Persian food at my students' house--a beef and herb stew, chicken baked with a sauce, rice, a tomato-cucumber salad, and a potato and egg salad. Delicious.
My west coast pal Jen always used to serve me pineapple with lime juice and chile powder and it became one of my favorite snacks (with a side of Tecate, of course). I guess the watermelon is the southern version!
ReplyDeleteEva,
ReplyDeleteI gotta say you positively slay me with these visions of watermelon. I grew up among watermelons. I walked the furrows of the fields looking for arrowheads & shards of pottery in Macon, Georgia. I split a huge Georgia melon on my knee. I got the thin pink water of it all over my shirt.
But come to read your recipes & I realize that I never saw the melon for the field.
In short, man alive do I want me some of that melon with chile & lime. I think I will live a little & pick up one of the $30 watermelons they sell here in Kyoto & dress to order, as you say.
--Mark (the one in Kyoto)