I love melons!

IMHO, there is nothing better on a hot, summer day than a piece of cold, juicy watermelon. Think about having a picnic/BBQ outdoors and what else comes to mind for picnic fruits than watermelon! Melons, in general, are underrated. They get a bad rap (see below).

But I love melons, in particular cantaloupe and watermelon. As a kid, I hated cantaloupe. My Mother, who was/is obsessed with fruits of all kind, would force my brother and I to eat it. I always found the flavour gross, the texture unappealing.

However, in the past few years, my taste buds have matured and I've come to love cantaloupe. To me, it's the most "cake-like" of fruits; the texture is more substantial then say, a strawberry and less crunchy than an apple but it's soft-ish and has a mild flavour. It doesn't make my mouth pucker like a tart berry or get stuck in between my teeth like the skin of an apple. It's like the vanilla cake equivalent in the fruit world. Great on its own or pair with something else more flavourful for a kick (like coconut or booze in a fruit salad or cheese and prosciutto like at Vertical in Matt's post below).

I also find it very filling, so a cup of diced cantaloupe will keep me full much longer than a cup of raspberries or a bunch of kiwi for example.

Watermelon has always been a favourite. I have fond memories of being a kid, sitting on the front step of our house, playing "Trouble" with my cousins and eating slices of watermelon. It's synonymous with summer and it is certainly best served super chilled.

Granted, you have to eat melons when they're perfectly ripe. Overripe melons can have an awful texture and taste grainy which is not good for anyone but that's true of any fruit, am I right?

Mind you, there is a hierarchy in the melon world and it goes something like this: watermelon, cantaloupe, everything else. Honeydew is gross; at least that's something Matt and I can agree on.

I can't stand: melon, honeydew, etc.

My fruit salad nightmare at a well-known breakfast chain

Mostly-eaten prosciutto, melon and mint from Vertical

I know I'll probably offend a few people saying this, but, with few exceptions, I dislike most melons, cantaloupes, honeydew and related fruit. It's probably because I have a general aversion to bland, flavourless and excessively watery fruits (fruit, in the culinary sense), something I feel these fruits are prone to be. I much prefer fruits that have some bite, some pucker, some flavour. One of my greatest fears when I order fruit salad is that it will be 90%+ melons, honeydew and watermelon.

One of the exceptions I make are for melon and prosciutto combinations. I particularly like the thinly-shaved melon with prosciutto and mint from Vertical Restaurant (see above).

The other exception I have made occurred when I was in the south of Spain. Honestly, I don't understand why they're so much tastier there, but they just were. In my limited experience, cantaloupes in Spain were a deep and appealing orange colour, pleasantly sweet, a bit tart and overall very flavourful and delicious. I have yet to find anything like these back home. If there's anyone out there who's found ones like this, in the Toronto area, please tell me where.

Ice cold chocolate

A fresh-from-the-freezer Reece Peanut Butter Cup

Mars and Snickers bars "available chilled" at a local sporting event

I like my chocolate ice cold. There's something I just enjoy about the crisp, crunchy snap of chocolate fresh from the fridge (or occasionally the freezer). Obviously, not all chocolate does cold well. The best candidates I've found for the fridge are things like Reece Peanut Butter Cups or Bars (but not Pieces), Kit Kat, Green and Black's White Chocolate and other things that are covered with or made entirely of relatively thin milk or white chocolate. I'm also told that freezing York Peppermint patties (but apparently not Pep) yields an amazingly refreshing treat. Dark chocolate and thicker milk chocolate can also be chilled as long as it's done carefully as they can become quite brittle. Even some chocolate bar makers are merchandising their products cold (see banner above for Mars and Snickers "available chilled" at BMO Field).

Although some say that refrigerating chocolate can result in so-called "chocolate bloom", I've rarely encountered this problem myself and tend to believe it's more the result of a quality issues with the chocolate. So if you haven't already, I recommend trying your favourite chocolate straight from the fridge, especially during the summer when chocolate is prone to melting.