I would agree with this statement. There’s a small, isolated segment of my family that salts their watermelon, and the rest of us are in consensus that they’re a bunch of freakish inbreds and shun them accordingly.
Of course, part of this very majority is another group of freaks who serve, at every family event, a concoction of cottage cheese, lime jello powder, raisins, and shredded carrots. Next to that monstrosity, I’d be happy to put Cholula on my Cocoa Puffs.
Yeah, I’m from LA originally and my whole family salts their watermelons…YUM! Nothing better! Hot, sweaty day of work or play, and someone brings out a chilled watermelon and a shaker of salt…mmmmm…drool…
And yes, I too get very strange looks. But, most who have tried it have not hated it.
I don’t know about salt but I like watermelon spiked with Ouzo. Then eat with a bit of feta cheese. My Bulgarian friend taught me that one.
DEEEEEEEEEEELish
yep, I too, have salted watermelons, grapefruit too. Have also added sugar to chili (especially commercially prepared chili) reason for the latter is that the sugar counteracts the acidic nature of the tomatoes (or that’s my story and I’m sticking to it).
Course, as my long suffering DH likes to point out, I DO have other food oddities (won’t eat chicken that’s still on a bone, won’t eat toast, only eat cereal dry, and the one that makes me damned near inhuman, don’t like chocolate)
I never salt anything normally, but I always salted watermelon as a kid (I don’t eat it that much now). Just a little, otherwise it’s ruined. I put sugar on grapefruit.
I also put ketchup and mustard on hot dogs. It was only as an adult that I learned you’re not supposed to do that. I have even been known to dip a chicken tender in some ketchup. And to even eat salmon patties (a staple growing up), I smothered them in the stuff. Salmon patties are nasty.
I also eat tuna and scrambled eggs. Yes, mixed/cooked together. As far as I can tell, my father invented it. Yum!
My husband is one of those who ruin a luscious, juicy piece of watermelon with salt. I’ve tasted it, and gagged. Not really, but I don’t like it. Ketchup and mustard on a hot dog? Why, of course! Sugar on grapefruit sometimes.
Jean Grey - tuna and scrambled eggs? That’s disgusting!
You are all sick, sick people for your strange and perverse food combinations. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going back to my pistachio ice cream with strawberry and caramel toppings.
(Now that’s almost guaranteed to make the others at the table twitch upon seeing it.)
I have been a lot of places and seen a lot of things but friends, the following is not for the faint of heart.
FOOD COMBINATIONS I HAVE PERSONALLY SEEN CONSUMED
oatmeal with butter and pepper
peanut butter and pickle sandwiches
wanton salting of almost every fruit(this done by Mr.57)
apples,catalope,peaches,kiwi,grapefruit,strawberries and yes, watermelon. Also (salted) raw onion & mayo sandwiches
baked potatoes & catsup
chicken noodle soup with lemon juice
juicy fried eggs with sweet and sour sauce
And the winner is… fried fish with Orabase cream. This unfortunate incident occured after the combined tasks of taking my son to the orthdontist and picking up Long John Silver’s on the way home. Just so you know Orabase is an anesthetic cream with the same consistancy as tartar sauce and it’s used for relieving oral discomfort that would be caused by a trip to the orthdontist. It was packagaged in a packet like catsup or taco sauce or tartar sauce for that matter.OK? Now all these things were laying the table when my sweet,vision impaired Mother-in-law began to eat. Only after she finished eating and remarked that “the fish didn’t tast right” did we find that she had eaten TWO WHOLE PACKETS OF ORABASE!! Her throat was numb for 12 hours. We watched her just a little more carefully after that.
People think of salt and sugar as opposites, but they really aren’t. In small amounts they’re complementary. Ever had a cookie or cake when the baker forgot the salt? Same amount of sugar, but no salt – and not much flavor.
That’s why if you put too much salt in something, the last thing you want to do is add sugar to try to counteract it, or vice versa.
I am a huge user of salt, and freely admit that I salt without tasting. Because I like things with SOOO much salt, there’s never any question as to whether or not the food in question needs salt - it’s just a question of how much. Salt first, then taste, then add the appropriate additional quantity. That said, I do not salt watermelon, because I don’t like watermelon. However, all of the older members of my family, and some of the younger ones as well, certainly do, and always have. So did members of the extended family at reunions and such over the years. I concur with whoever mentioned that it might be more of a rural thing, as that is the context in which I have most commonly seen it. I have tried watermelon with lime juice (offered to me by a Mexican waitress in a Mexican restaurant - she was having a snack), and it was good, for watermelon. Less bland than usual.
The Man Who, back when I was a young’un I did crumble huge quantities of crackers into my soup, and of course they didn’t stay crisp, that was the point. Tomato soup in particular turned into a wonderful orange-red mush. Now I drop a maximum of two small pieces in at a time, but I still have fond recollections of tomato soup full of crushed Club crackers.
Heaven knows I have my share of food quirks (I hate for different foods to touch each other, and will spend as long as it takes to pick tiny bits of anything I don’t care for, like onions, out of something served to me), but as for salt, the ones that seem to disturb people the most are when I salt chocolate candy, cookies of almost any kind, and tortilla chips. (The Man Who, I also add extra salt to my saltines, the polar opposite of you. Seeing those “unsalted” saltines in the grocery makes me shudder, but perhaps you should try them.) I carry a small salt shaker in my purse, because I got tired of having to ask for one everywhere I went, and of periodically finding myself with something promising to eat but no salt available, which took all the enjoyment out of it. Besides, it allows me to have a salt shaker at my plate full time in a restaurant - necessary since I usually salt things by the bite, even if I’ve done a general salting first - without having to keep the regular shaker from others, or wait for them to finish using it and return it so I can go to the next bite. Nothing says weird eaters can’t be courteous.
As for weird sweet/salty combinations, we here in the South tend to do such things–one of my favorite things growing up used to be to drop a big plastic sleeve of Lance Spanish peanuts into a Coke (a real Coca-Cola in a glass bottle that you got a deposit back on) and eat/drink it. A friend of our family always puts sugar in collards and turnip greens (a little too heavily for my taste). My family and I eat melon (of any sort) with or without salt, and like it both ways. The only way I like to eat fresh tomatoes is with a little mayo and some salt and pepper.
One of the things that must be remembered is that here in the South, the four food groups are salt, fat, sugar, and starch. Vegetables can be eaten only because of their being prepared in the presence of other basic food groups. Example, fried dill pickle chips combine the dubious value of a cucumber with starch, salt, and a refreshing splash in the ol’ deep fryer. Almost a perfect food! (I like fresh cucumbers with a little salt, too)