I got to try a new fruit I had never had before today. I was picking up some onions and other produce and out of the corner of my eye saw a yellow melon that I had never seen before. It was a Hami melon from Guatemala, and I said what the hell and picked it up. According to the intertrons, it is from China.
It was a very interesting melon. It was super sweet, and almost syrupy, but the flavor was a cross between a cantaloupe and a honeydew. The outside was very hard, as hard as a cantaloupe, but on the inside it was very juicy.
And it was only four bucks. A lot of time the exotic fruits are super pricey, but this was a good deal.
Suzanne
Rotating tag.
dexwood
Livin’ the good life, Cole.
Howard Campbell's Soup
Hami melons are delicious.
They’ve been available around here for a few years and I eat them whenever I get the chance.
Omnes Omnibus
Can you make it into a soup?
joel hanes
Almost forty years ago, my wife doted on orange-flesh honedew melon, and had it for breakfast almost every morning when it was in season.
I haven’t seen one in years. Do they still exist in the marketplace?
dexwood
@joel hanes: Still enjoy them here in New Mexico, though, they are documented when they cross the border.
eta – thinking it over, I might be thinking of a different melon by a different name that looks similar.
TaMara
Have you tried my jicama slaw, it sounds like it would be right up your alley. It’s cheap and makes a ton of slaw, too.
Jager
@Omnes Omnibus:
You can make anything into a soup, there are a million recipes. I made cantaloupe and mint soup once and never made it again. Easier just to scoop it into your mouth over the sink.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jager: I have even heard one can make soup from stones.
SpaceUnit
So is it from Guatemala or China?
Jager
@Omnes Omnibus:
Lichen soup?
laura
https://www.snakeriverseeds.com/products/melon-crane
I cant recommend the Crane Melon enough! The fragrance, the flesh, the sensual and gustatory pleasures of the table! I know there’s a world of beautiful melons, but the Crane is a lovely treat. It will perfume any room it’s in and it’s more haunting than Shalimar.
Brachiator
I have never heard of the Hami melon or seen it at my local markets. Now I am curious to hunt it out.
I thought the exciting food news was the imminent return of the Mexican Pizza, which is really neither Mexican nor pizza, to Taco Bell.
Apparently a massive petition campaign helped and Mexican Pizza will be back on the menu on May 19.
God bless America.
This story also made me think of the 1987 movie “Demolition Man,” which offers a vision of the future where Taco Bell is the sole survivor of the Franchise Wars.
debbie
@Jager:
Cold fruit soups in the summer are the best!
danielx
@debbie:
Gazpacho!
danielx
Actually I suspect my diet will change in a serious way, cardiologist appointment on Monday.
Gin & Tonic
@danielx: One could, of course, argue that tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are fruits.
Poe Larity
Who knew WV was a culinary utopia
CarolPW
For a few years I grew Charentais melons intending to give them to others (I had a big garden) because I am not that fond of melons. But they were absolutely fantastic, so I gave a lot away and ate several too. They were funny because there was a narrow window for ripeness and too ripe. Barely past perfectly ripe they blew up and looked like the Halloween puking pumkins.
Scout211
My favorite hybrid melon is the Ambrosia melon.
I grow it every year in my garden but I have yet to find it in the stores. Yummy.
danielx
@Gin & Tonic:
One could. One would be incorrect.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jager: No, stone soup.
Obvious Russian Troll
@Brachiator: I haven’t been to a Taco Bell in close to 15 years, but I do miss the Mexican Pizza. I always thought it was an abomination, but it was a tasty abomination.
(Sadly I can’t eat gluten any more, so I’m not even sure I could eat one if I did go.)
Steeplejack
@Howard Campbell’s Soup:
FYI, the blog software does not like apostrophes in nyms, so unless you remove it or replace it with something like * or ^ a front-pager will have to approve each and every comment you make. If you do remove or replace it, one comment is approved and then you’re set going forward.
Jager
@Omnes Omnibus:
I usually make it without the stone, but I’ll give it a shot, and let you know how it tastes.
Grumpy Old Railroader
Chinese Hami melons from Guatemala? No way. I like my Chinese produce straight from China thank you
Mike in NC
@danielx: Marjorie Taylor Greene tried to warn us about the Gaspacho police.
satby
John, if you see a durian fruit, RUN!
JCJ
@Gin & Tonic: so if those are considered to be fruit is gazpacho a smoothie?
CaseyL
A really sweet and sugary melon is straight off my eating list (diabetes).
@joel hanes: The only honeydews I’m familiar with have the light green flesh. Maybe she had a honeydew-cantaloup hybrid (if there even is suh a thing)?
Speaking of hybrids, I’ve been looking to get some dwarf fruit trees for my decktop garden. And looking at what nurseries offer, I am gobsmacked. Grafting has gone completely out of hand. Some nurseries offer fruit trees that grow four different fruits! Not four varieties of one fruit, but entirely different fruits. Peach, nectarine, plum, and apricot. It’s madness, and I want one.
prostratedragon
Let the watermelon and tomato salad (red onions, basil, gazpacho-like things) sit in the fridge a day or two and it becomes like a cold soup. Yummy.
I’ll be looking for these Hami melons this season.
Jharp
I know I’m years behind but those little potatoes about halfway between the size of a marble and a ping pong ball are super delicious.
I happen to think they are a very significant improvement in our diets.
randal m sexton
@Omnes Omnibus: not just any stone. Has to be a soup stone. Plus adding onions helps a little.
NotMax
Somewhere among my food files is a recipe for roasted cantaloupe. Might work with others of the melon clan.
@satby
Hey now, durian is yummy. Pungent on the ol’ olfactory sense, but yummy.
Among fruits once commonplace but now rarely seen is the humble medlar. Which cannot be consumed fresh picked, it’s one of those things which requires bletting before doing anything useful with it. Good fruit for jams, nearly any description of the medlar someplace within includes the phrase “looks like a dog’s butt.”
Suzanne
Now I’m craving cantaloupe and a Mexican pizza.
H.E.Wolf
Per that ol’ scribbler Will Shakespeare, that’s not all it looks like.
cain
@Suzanne: I hesitate to say that I’m craving melons.
opiejeanne
@CaseyL: I really don’t recommend them. For one thing, you need to know which varieties you can grow right there where you live, in your little microclimate. The Sunset Western Garden Book breaks down climates on the west coast almost by neighborhoods, and I’m sure there’s a current volume at your public library.
opiejeanne
@NotMax: Bletting, meaning partially rotted.
Juice Box
Last summer I had several Picasso melons. They were probably one of the best things I’ve ever eaten. They’re a nearly white honeydew-type with splashes of chartreuse green on the skin. The flavor is rich, sweet, buttery and complex, just amazing. I hope my supermarket has them again this summer.
Jerzy Russian
99 Ranch Market (a chain of Asian supermarkets in Southern California) regularly has hami melons. We used to have them quite frequently, but for whatever reason our melon consumption has dropped in recent months.
sempronia
Hami melons are a famous regional specialty in China and are supposed to be sweet and crisp, never mushy. I get my melons nowadays from the local farmers markets, and I keep seeds from the good ones. When in season, there will be ten different melon varieties at just one market, all of them delicious. Now I just need a garden big enough to plant them all.
JoyceH
@NotMax:
I tried durian once. ONCE. The first few bites were fine, but then the odor became overwhelming. I not only couldn’t finish the serving, but I had to take the leftovers and the entire rest of the durian, and quadruple wrap it in plastic bags, and that still wasn’t enough, so I had to take the whole mess out to the outside garbage bin.
BTW, for those following the Abby saga, the vet has prescribed amitriptylene, AKA Elavil.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Wise guy.
JAM
I am planting seeds of Collective Farm Woman melons this year. The description of them sounds similar– yellow skins and green flesh, very sweet. This is the first time I’ve tried planting melons, so I’m hoping they work out. Honeydew are my favorite grocery melon, these are casabas, but are supposed to taste similar.
YY_Sima Qian
Hami melons are from Hami in Xinjiang. I highly doubt you will have any imported into the US or the EU. It is great though, & pretty cheap in China.
MomSense
If anyone is looking for an NA beer that actually tastes good, a friend started a craft non alcoholic beer brewery. He is working with locally grown hops and teamed up with one of the better brewers here in Maine. The company is called KitNA. They have two beers so far, a blonde called On Your Mark and a pale IPA called Get Set. I like Get Set.