To All,
While slinking through Whole Foods, I was drawn to yet another melon, the Casaba. This melon is round and yellow, with a bump of a topknot and somewhat wrinkled as though it were the repository of great wisdom. This melon weighed 4.48 pounds and cost $0.99 per pound.
I went through my usual melon protocol and cut it in half and then quarters. The seed, which was collected in a star-shaped cavity in the center, is easily scooped out of the quarters with a spoon. I then cut it into eighths and found that it was easy at this stage to remove the rind with a steak knife. The pictures below show:
- The entire melon.
- The two halves of the melon.
- A half, a quarter with the seeds removed, and two eighths with both the seeds and the rind removed, with the removed rind behind the eighths.
I then sat down to eat my usual serving of a quarter of a melon. I lifted a slice to my mouth and took a big bite. The flavor was subtle. At first there was a whiff of honeydew taste, but as I continued, the taste seemed to take on a character of its own and did not decompose into a mixture of other melon tastes. After eating it I did not detect any augmentation of wisdom.
The verdict: With a faint though pleasing taste and the usual appealing melon texture, this is a worthwhile though uncompelling melon. The casaba, Christmas, and canary melons really are much the same in terms of the strength of flavor and texture, with there being slight variations in the flavor. James Bond could distinguish them in a blind taste test, but for normal purposes these three melons are interchangeable. It might be that you would choose among them on the basis of appearance. The Christmas melon has the comfort-look of a mini-watermelon, the canary melon is a bright, cheery yellow, and the casaba has its charming little topknot. Also, the Christmas melon tends to be a little smaller.
A previous melon party tip allowed your guests to paint. This party tip allows them to sculpt. Sit your guests down in front of the big screen and show them the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejv0eiFI8Hk. Then, sit them back down at the table, give each guest a melon and a carving knife, and ask them to follow the instructions in the video and to carve their melon into a fish. When all of the fish are carved, collect them together to simulate a melon aquarium. If you want an ecologically balanced wetland scene, show the videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc4fKYz95ao and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmHk9m0sobU and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXzfRlSNOrY, which instruct your guests in how to carve swans, aquatic flowers, and sea shells from melons. Provide your guests with different melons so your flotilla of swans can by many-hued and your flower bed can be multi-colored. Finally, carve a boat in which to explore your aquatic ecosystem. Take a picture of this melon-inspired wetland scene so your guests will have a permanent reminder of your party. Later, your guests will silently thank you for revealing to them the artistic possibilities of fruit and for bringing out the inner artist within them.
Rick
P.S. In the fish pictures above, the fruits surrounding the fish, from the inside out, look to me like oranges, kiwis, jack fruits, and strawberries. I'm not sure of the jack fruit. Can someone with a keener eye correct me?
P.P.S. Here are pictures that illustrate the casaba experience.
- The place of casabas among other melons.
- A recipe for casaba curry.
- A casaba dollhouse.
- A black and white drawing (labeled "Circa 1920") that shows a casaba that looks exactly like the one I ate. This has a very realistic depiction of the topknot.
- A cartoon from The New Yorker that features a casaba. In the long-standing New Yorker cartoon tradition, it is not funny.
- A graphic that shows the role of the casaba in world cinema.
- Kids bowling with casabas. From the picture I can't tell if they are playing tenpin or candlepin.
- Two casaba candles. You can get the green one at Walgreen's. For the yellow one, star fruit is seen as a selling point; clearly, this product is aimed at the fruit cognoscenti.
- One of the legion of cosmetics that uses casaba.
