Arizona Sun

Summertime in Arizona is a scorching beast. We call it a "dry heat", because the only moisture to be found is coming from our bodies, seeping out the try to keep us desert lizards cool. The temperature starts to creep up into unbearable territory starting in March all the way to October, but the real survival test is those summer months.

In the peak of the season, that first step outside after being in a nice, air-conditioned room is equivalent to cracking open the oven door while baking cookies and getting absolutely blasted by the heat. Trying not to take a breath for fear of cooking your lungs.

Suffice it to say, Arizonans need water in all forms. Iced water to keep hydrated, pools to cool off, sprinklers to run through (gotta let the hose run for a few minutes to let the scalding water out first though). But nothing hits the spot quite as well as watermelon fresh from the fridge.

The perfect watermelons are ripe, firm, and a lovely balance of sweet and tart on the inside. Biting into one should elicit a good crunch and quench your thirst; they're not called watermelons for nothing.

No pool party or get-together is complete without a fruit plate. It's a perfect appetizer and desert; the usual suspects share the platter (honeydew, cantaloupe, strawberries, and grapes), but the star of the show is the red seeded beauty.

Guess which fruit is usually finished before any of the others? (If your answer is honeydew or cantaloupe then you're wrong).

Aside from being utterly delicious, watermelon is versatile. It can be blended into a juice. Or put in the freezer for a healthy popsicle. There're even recipes to candy the rind, so not even a scrap needs to go to waste.

For Easter, the melon can be cut and hollowed to make a basket for the fruit salad. For pool parties, it can be carved in the likeness of a shark with jagged edges for teeth.

Now, the kicker, people cook watermelon. Like the pink, sweet insides. Cut them into triangles, slap them on the grill, add some salt and voila, savory side. Cube some up, pair it with feta and a balsamic glaze, and again, savory.

Now, no good debate is complete without looking at some negatives. We've got to be fair and realistic after all.

Is every watermelon crunchy, balanced, and amazing? No. But there isn't much in life that is perfectly uniform all the time. Not anything plucked from a garden at least.

Sometimes while you're tearing through your bowl of watermelon chunks, you may come upon one that's soft. For me, that's not ideal. But I would gladly choose a slightly squishy cube of watermelon over a perfectly fine piece of cantaloupe. (Is it just me, or does cantaloupe sometimes taste the way nail polish remover smells?)

Also, the price tag. Watermelon isn't exactly cheap. But if you keep an eye open for coupons or sales, you can come across a stellar deal.

Lastly, having watermelon is a bit of a process. If you get a family sized one, then there's the whole issue of cutting it up however you prefer and then storing leftovers. Picking out the seeds for little kids. And it's all so juicy that I lay a towel down under my cutting board because there will be some spillage. But I get to have my pick of pieces. (I'm the weirdo who chomps down on a watermelon well into where the pink fades to pale green.) And process ends with, you guessed it, watermelon!

So yes, watermelon is king. Especially once summer rolls around.