Cantaloupe Conundrum

For as long as I can remember I’ve hated cantaloupe.  I hated the smell, the taste, the scratchy outside rind and I especially hated when it tainted the rest of the delicious items in my fruit salad.  That is, until last summer. 

As you probably know, Nick and I ran the Marine Corps Marathon last October.  That meant months of training, including the entire summer which was the hottest on record.  Somewhere in the midst I read cantaloupe was a great post-run refuel snack.  I whined and griped but bought one anyway.  I was getting sick of our normal routine of fruit snacks, bananas and Gatorade.  The best way to describe the first round would be ‘ok’.

Over Labor Day weekend Nick and I finally took a vacation and headed out to the west coast.  We spent time with family in San Francisco and toured the area.  While vacationing we had an 18 mile run scheduled.  We got up before dawn, put on layers (it’s cold in California in the morning!) and headed out.  Fast forward about three hours when we drug ourselves through the front door.  As we stretched my aunt cut up a cantaloupe, brewed me a fantastic cup of tea and started making us banana pancakes from scratch.  I got up to the counter and as soon as I saw the fruit, I dug in.  The pancakes were amazing too. But that’s a given.

To this day I have no idea why but something inside me craved it and I still can’t get enough of that odd orange fruit I once hated.  We now keep, or at least attempt to, a large Tupperware container full of cut up pieces waiting for me to arrive.  I can easily eat half a melon in one sitting and yet still want more.  Nick thinks it’s humorous to watch me sit on our counters devouring a big bowl while we’re cooking dinner.

So until I decide I no longer enjoy this fruit, I’ll keep on eating it.  And until that day comes, a common statement in our house is “I don’t know why I’m eating this stuff.  I used to hate it!  Oh hey, I finished this one off.  Do we have any more?”