Dear doper folk
Well cold and plain, but the best watermelon was after a hot day of bailing hay, we would have gotten a watermelon on Friday night and put it in the milk cooler (In those days we still put our milk in a can rather than a bulk-milk tank.) Nothing like a good days farm work to lend a flavour.
Well to be fair I wouldn’t trade now for then, but yes in memory at least, that was the very best watermelon.
Z
I’m sorry, I didn’t read the thread, but I did search for vodka.
I like watermelon raw, with an implement of destruction. Usually a fork or spoon, but sometimes it’s a blender, with a bit of vodka adding to the carnage.
However, I did come upon a salad recipe involving adulterated watermelon some time ago that made me really happy that you might also enjoy:
Scoop out half a watermelon and pour the juice into a food processor. Add a pint of raspberries and 1/3 c raspberry vinegar and puree. Drizzle in 1 c olive oil. Strain that mess through cheesecloth to get out the seeds & stuff.
Toss 6 c arugula, the melon balls, 1 pt raspberries, 12 oz feta. Drizzle with the dressing.
It’s fine, and a nice starter. Not the same as raw with a spoon, though.
The fruit vendors here will cut them up for you into little chunks. We take them home and stick them in the fridge (the watermelon chunks, not the fruit vendors). Nothing like good, sweet, chilled watermelon, and we have it year-round. Mmmm. As is with nothing added.
And I eat the seeds too, the ones that don’t drop off. I hate spitting, plus I consider it “roughage.”
I’m a huge watermelon fan myself. I have eaten entire watermelons by myself, but always plain, room temperature or cold (no preference - just not warm!)
My friend makes a version of trashcan punch (he calls it Wapatui) with watermelons and tons of liquor. It’s pretty delicious and all the alcoholic fruit makes a good hair-of-the-dog next morning hangover breakfast.
Cold from the fridge with salt. NC
I grew up in a small California community, where we had fresh fruit nearly all year. Maybe due to the fact that my parents were from the South, it was common to put salt on watermelon and/or cantelope (and some other fruit). I think that some folks also put pepper on it; but that’s not for me.
Recently, I discovered that I really liked the taste of watermelon and/or cantelope when I sprinkled lemon juice on it and added salt too. I am totally hooked!
Roberta
Chunks of watermelon with lemon juice and salt…yum! Love it better when all the chunks are basting in the lemon juice. It’s a good thing I can get watermelon year round because I am totally hooked on this fruit. Also, cantelope is good mixed with the watermelon or all by itself in the same concoction.
roberta
Did I post this? I don’t think I’ve ever bee anything but Trick Rider here. 
So, how popular is salt on watermelon?
Plain. ice cold, eaten outside so that the juice can run down my chin and not end up on the furniture or carpet.
Cold, almost forzen, straight out of an ice chest filled with icewater. Eaten outside in the blazing Texas summer sun. It must be cut into sliced halves, and eaten with the hands, with salt. The seeds spit out onto ground.
My mom puts salt and pepper on hers, but I think most people do not.
I put salt on mine. It pulls out the juices from the melon and makes it taste sweeter, I think.
I prefer it room temperature. Cold is too hard on my teeth.
Plain, and any temperature below hot.
My husband is another one that doesn’t like melons. I have to warn him when I’m eating honeydew so he doesn’t accidentally wander into the kitchen and encounter it.
it is entirely too cold outside to be resurrecting watermelon threads
I want mine cold and unadulterated, though I might try spiking one with some rum. I have tried melon, all kinds of melon, with salt, and I don’t care for it at all. I’m also not fond of hothouse melons. I think that they just don’t have enough flavor. Seedless watermelon is easier to eat, but again, I think they’ve lost some of the good flavor.
I loved yellow watermelon even before it was very popular.
Mmmmmmmmm… watermelon. I love it lightly salted, but usually eat it plain, cold from the fridge, since it’s healthier.
Now, cantelope… can’t stand the smell of it. I got sick eating it when I was abouot 5, and ever since that time… bleh.