Do you have
a proven working technique for choosing a good watermelon?
You don’t
just go to the store and pick up the first watermelon
you find and buy it, do
you?
Sure thing, larger supermarkets take
it back even after you have cut it and it is not the perfect
red firm juicy
watermelon that you wanted, but why not buy the best
watermelon you can in the first place instead of taking
an extra trip
to the store to return it?
A technique that works for
me, kind of, is that I generally knock on it. If it sounds
hollow-ish, it is good enough
for me. Unfortunately if the watermelon is sitting on
top of a box or something, the hollow sound of the box
is probably
what we hear and it is mistakenly taken for the sound
of the watermelon itself and what you end up getting is
good
for making Morrabba …
However, my technique is
very non-intrusive. Instead of knocking, I have seen
some folks who bang on it, like slapping
someone. I tried that technique and it was actually pretty
painful - you can even injure your wrist.
Others squeeze
both ends with their hands and if they hear a cracking
noise, the watermelon
is good. This technique
is doable if applied to smaller watermelons that little
guys like me can handle. Lifting a big watermelon and
squeezing it at the same time is a job for Herkool (Hecules)
and
it is realistically not practical for me – I also
once squeezed one too hard and it broke. Before falling
to the ground, because the watermelon space between my
hands had collapsed, I got watermelon juice all over
my face, shirt, pants, and shoes.
We were once coming
back from
Santa Cruz and on our way back, we stopped by a fruit
stand to get some fresh fruit.
We saw a guy holding a watermelon between his legs – yes
between his legs. I honestly thought he was either exercising
or demonstrating something, at least that’s how it
looked. Instead of squeezing the ends with his hands, he
was squeezing the sides with his legs, while knocking on
it – It was a combo technique! Although this seemed
like the true knocking without the box echoes, I cannot
imagine myself at ANY grocery store, holding a watermelon
between my legs, knocking on it. I can think of a million “what
if”s including how to handle the big ones …
The
guy looked Pakistani or Indian - I wish I had photographed
him.
When I was younger, I saw one
of our neighbors quickly sit on a watermelon – Come
to think of it, sitting on a cold watermelon, in the
middle of the summer, in the
streets is a little kinky, but using her hip power (weight?)
worked for her. This is not as bad as what I recently encountered
in Iran.
We went on a brief trip to Iran a few
years ago and while there, I went grocery shopping with
my dad. The
old/former
MayDunne, is now moved up north from the southern, rundown
parts of the city - there are in fact a couple of branches
at different locations in Tehran - It is like Price Club
for fresh produce.
Instead of buying it from the local
convenient stores, like we used to, a lot of people go
to these MayDunnes
and buy their fruits and vegetables there, particularly
for parties and events, which was our case ... I am sure
they sell other stuff too, but I did not get a chance
to explore.
As we were looking for the right
peaches and the right cherries and the right grapes,
we went from one store/booth/stand
to another, I saw an interesting looking guy, whom I first
thought was dressed in traditional Kordi (Kurdish) clothes
and my dad corrected me that he was from Afghanistan – He
picked up a watermelon, put it on his head, and a moment
later he fell to the ground – The watermelon, which
indeed was gorgeous red inside, fell to the ground with
him and burst open and splashed all over him, everyone
nearby, and all over the place.
People quickly gathered
around and helped him come about.
Apparently the Afghan
Technique for purchasing watermelon is to Put it on your
head and
squeeze down. You either
have a ripe skull with questionable content or a ripe
watermelon. By pressing on the watermelon against your
head, one is
going to make a louder noise, I guess. In the latter
case, you pay and leave, in the former, I guess you will
get
a concussion and pass out, and will still according to
Iranian Market rules, still pay for the watermelon that
you broke but you won’t have anything to take with
you!
What is your technique?
