Watermelon, Watermelon Everywhere

I woke up on the couch this afternoon -- after what seemed like a one- or two-hour nap -- disoriented, sweaty, and with an overwhelming desire for some watermelon. Ever since we moved to Seoul in June, the weather most days has been disgustingly hot and humid, and on many of these days I've been tempted to take home one of the large, striped-green orbs that sit seductively on fruit stands around just about every corner here. Walking by, I would imagine the wealth of succulent goodness hidden inside each of those giant globes and think about whether this was the day...

But you don't just buy a watermelon on a whim. That kind of food purchase is a serious investment, perhaps along the lines of buying a turkey for Thanksgiving. I've never invested in a turkey before but imagine there are a number of similar things to consider:

1. Size: turkeys come in a variety of sizes, but watermelons tend to come in one -- large. And because of this, you have to decide how bad you want to eat watermelon, because you're going to be eating a lot of it, maybe for several days. There's also the weight consideration, because someone's gotta carry the darn thing home.

2. Quality: like with most fruit, judging the quality of a watermelon from the outside is pure mysticism to me. After arriving at the supermarket today and heading straight for the watermelon display, I did a general look-over of the fruit. All seemed to bear a significant resemblance to their peers. Upon a physical inspection, however, some appeared to be flat in certain areas, or not as round. I slapped a few as well, because I had heard somewhere that you want the watermelon to sound hollow when you hit it. And of course, I picked several up, to gauge their weight. I ended up buying the roundest, heaviest, and hollowest-sounding one I could find, which most likely made no difference whatsoever in the end.

3. Price: the watermelon market in Seoul seems to be as volatile as the stock market. In the last few months, the price of a watermelon has gone from as high as 18,000 won to 8,000, generally speaking. But even today a man tried to sell me a watermelon for 17,000 won, so caveat emptor.

4. Leftovers: since there's only two of us, I knew there were going to be leftovers, and our fridge isn't very large. Things would have to be rearranged. On my walk home, while cradling my prize in both arms, I also thought of all the space-saving ways I could cut up the watermelon so it would fit in our small refrigerator...

After rinsing the baby off and setting it on the counter, I pressed a knife against the watermelon's midpoint and with just the slightest amount of pressure, the blade cracked through the rind and the watermelon just about snapped in two, pink juices splattering on the counter. I reset the knife and finished the cut through to the other side, but being a little inexact, a thin sliver of the fruit's flesh fell off to the side and landed in a small pool of juice. I picked up the piece and popped it in my mouth. This was going to be a good one.