Horned Melon

Behold, the exotic horned melon:

I saw this spiny beast in the produce section of our grocery store and couldn't help myself. After all, I have committed myself to trying five new foods again this year, but I have yet to get started on that goal. Why not go for something I knew nothing about and that looked a little bit dangerous?

Truth: the spikes are legitimately poky. Washing this thing was risky business.

As exciting as the outside is, though, the real fun was when I cut it open...

...and all this green goop started spilling out!

Each seed is surrounded by a little piece of jelly-like fruit. They're very wet but strangely not juicy, and you just sort of slurp them out of the rind. The texture was kind of like jello and it tasted like a mildly citrusy cucumber.

I can see that it would be refreshing on a warm, dry day. Maybe not my first choice of snack, but still tasty and certainly fun to try.