[Continued from Part 2]
Travel Tip
Your travel tip is to visit the city of Hami, which bases its identity on this melon, and take in the Honey-tour Hami Melon Festival, which takes place every July. Here is a picture of tourists having a good time. As you can see, some Hami melons are as big as jack fruit.
Here is a description of the festival followed by the picture of a Hami melon that is 13.9 meters (45 feet) long.
A 13.9-meter long, 8-meter high Hami melon model with a diameter of 7.5 meters, invites visitors to the Ninth Honey-tour Hami Melon Festival in the city of Hami in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region on July 12. During the festival 128 types of Hami melons will be showcased and 20 tons of Hami melons will be offered to tourists for free.
Among the attractions are a Hami melon sculpture contest. Pictured below are entrants from the 2012 contest: "Flying Hami," an Islamic castle, and a flower basket.
Finally, don't miss the actors who put on a Hami melon drama. Judging from the picture, in this scene papa melon is being entreated to give his sons their inheritance without making them wait.
Gift Idea
Give the artist in your life the ability to create fruit art works such as the ones pictured above by giving him or her a fruit carving knife. You can get one for only $3.34 (free shipping!) at this site. Here are some pictures.
- The knife.
- A close-up of the carving end.
- An illustration of how to use the scoop on the other end to create melon balls, which can be used as all-purpose ornaments. Note from the first picture the hole in the scoop, which allows the juice to drain. This is the same design used by an olive spoon.
A Muskmelon Liqueur
Midori is a green liqueur made from muskmelon. I have been unable to definitively determine which muskmelon is used, though there are indications that it is the honeydew melon. See this site for 283 drink recipes that use Midori, including the Loch Ness Monster, the Mellow Hiker, and the Kryptonite. "Midori" means green in Japanese.
