Same here. I grew up with a family friend who grew heirloom “Moon and Stars” watermelons behind their house, and these were best without refrigeration or toppings. We now grow them in our back yard, and they’re delicious!
Not a whole lot of salt, but just a wee sprinkle. It’s sweet and savory all at the same time. Salt makes watermelon taste more watermelony to me. Of course, it’s something I grew up with. That’s how I learned to eat it. I also learned to eat it in the backyard in a folding webbed lawn chair, stripped down to my underwear, with a garden hose nearby. I kept the salt habit. What? Nobody else’s Mom didn’t want to give them a bath after watermelon?
I like mine cold, but not too cold, and plain (but I’ll salt it from time to time).
My best watermelon story:
My father and I were cutting corn one summer and it was unbearably hot - I mean August humidity, down in a bottom field where there was no air movement, doing manual labor and it was just brutal. We got to the end of a row nearest the garden and he said, “Wait right here.”
He walked over, found a nice, ripe watermelon and brought if over. Took the corn knife and split it open - MY GOD that was refreshing. The work went a little easier, the heat didn’t seem so bad, and I got to spend some good time with my old man on a hot summer day. Kind of hard to top that.
Quite spicy…but not that “hot”, though it is hot. It’s more the Indian definition of spicy, i.e., flavorful.
I also dip orange slices into it. I love it.
So this thread isn’t about Safewords, then?
I’ve never tried watermelon any other way, although some of these suggestions sound interesting. I’ve never heard of salt, which seems counterintuitive. One of the Nero Wolfe novels talks about watermelon refrigerated in brandy then sprikled with granulated sugar.
Generally I like it plain and room temp or chilled. However, the mother of an old friend of mine used to make pickled watermelon that was incredible.
I’ve never even heard of salting watermelon… I’m amazed at how popular it is, considering.
I think I’m the only one who likes warm watermelon. Sun-warmed is best. Dries it out a tiny bit, and concentrates the flavour a bit more. Mmm.
You guys remind me - my parrot used to lick watermelon. Lick. Lick. Lick. While she’d eye you with one beady eye, like you were going to run over and take it away. Then, when it was all dessicated and she’d sucked all the flavor out, she’d abandon it, leaving it looking so sad and pathetic, and go entirely to the opposite side of her cage and look at it with disgust.
Queen Kyoko saying “Remove this now, peon.” 
I don’t like melon, watermelon, cantaloupe or any other cousin of theirs, but apparently I’m very good at choosing them.
The two variations I know on how to eat them are “plain” and, for melon, “with not-well-cured jamón” (try finding a prosciutto that doesn’t have too much salt). It should be at room temperature so long as the room isn’t warmer than your body.
I think I love you. Seriously, even the slightest scent of any of these destroys my appetite. And every single girlfriend or wife I’ve ever had loved these. It created lots of arguments because they wouldn’t believe that I hated all melons, and didn’t want to be in the presence of nature’s armpits. If you feel the same way about cucumbers (pickles are ok), I’d marry you. 
It was not a joke response. Cilantro is the most evil weed I’ve ever had the misfortune of tasting. The thought of mixing it with two things as pleasant as watermelon and rum literally makes me gag.
None for me at all either. I’m allergic to it and it brings me out in a red itchy rash…
All melons are evil. So are cukes. Tomatoes are Nature’s Stop Sign . Big and red.
Fresh Silver Queen corn on the cob is heaven, though.
StG
Frozen and plain please.
Slice it into big slabs and freeze.
A popsicle with a natural handle. It does take a fork to eat it though, or I get frozen teeth.
Nothing better on a hot afternoon.
I forgot to mention, and I don’t know if this counts, but it’s often served with cottage cheese in my immediate corner of existence. I think it’s probably a regional midwest thing, we serve cottage cheese with pretty much any fruit, fresh or canned. More often it’s canned fruit cocktail, or peaches, or pears, or applesace over cottage cheese as a dessert/finisher… The mild, creamy nature of the cottage cheese really works well with the unique tone of watermelon.
There’s a new taste sensation for the industrial food people… Creamy Watermelon!
Why do I hear so many people gagging?
Cottage cheese and cantaloupe is yummmmy. I also love cottage cheese and tomato. And cottage cheese, wheatgerm, and honey. There’s cottage cheese tar tar, cottage cheese kabobs…
Why do I get the feeling you don’t like cottage cheese?
Something interesting I noticed, a food paradox… how exactly does one explain the flavor of watermelon to one who has never tasted it?
The musk of watermelon is so wonderful… wordless.
I don’t know how I’d do it.
Errr, Maybe… the flavor of watermelon is a high sugary tang, wet, and luscious, smooth and soft, with tones of peach, basil, and wine.
It’s kind of like a good pussy.
Let’s just hope your grandma has tasted watermelon and doesn’t need you to explain it to her.
I wouldn’t be able to describe the taste of watermelon to someone who hadn’t experienced it. It wouldn’t be like trying to describe blue to someone who was colour blind.
I am another who has never even heard of adding anything to watermelon until this thread. It’s always plain for me. I think I prefer room temperature to cold, but mostly because my teeth wouldn’t be happy with excessive coldness.
Other forms I have had watermelon in:
- Fresh watermelon juice. Mmmm…
- Watermelon sorbet (the stuff they sell at Nosh). Very nice, but doesn’t compare to the real thing.
- Watermelon flavoured Starburst Sucks. (links to a commercial)
I want watermelon now.
I recently ended up with more watermelon than my wife and I were likely to eat, so I chopped up a bunch of it and threw it in the blender. Is this how you make watermelon nectar? It made a very refreshing drink.
I’ve also had it dipped in chili powder, which is more interesting than good, in my opinion. Come to think of it, it was an Indian girl who taught me to to this.
Daniel