Good morning. Nicole Taylor wrote about watermelon for The Times this week, and when I was finished reading her piece I went to the market and got one of those globe watermelons that sit in the huge cardboard box at the front of the store and put it in the refrigerator to chill. Nicole’s article was about good watermelons — heritage watermelons, black-seeded and sweet — and mine was just a commodity watermelon, but no matter: It was my first of the season, and I was looking forward to it.
I used about a quarter of it to make her recipe for country panzanella with watermelon dressing (above): amazing. I blitzed another quarter with ice and lime juice to make agua fresca. I made watermelon chaat to accompany a dinner (keema with rolls and yogurt). And then I made watermelon granita because I like watermelon granita after dinner in the summertime, even if I’ve been eating watermelon all day.
All this was terrific. But Nicole’s story left me craving seeds and deeper flavor, and I’m going to spend some time in the next couple of weeks seeking both out. I hope you’ll do the same.
What are you getting up to in the kitchen? I’m thinking this Jamaican curry chicken and potatoes may be worth my time this week, along with kimchi bibim guksu and crispy tofu with cashews and blistered snap peas.
Now, it’s nothing to do with chocolate milk or chicken larb, and I’m late to it besides, but if you like true crime and false love, you may want to check out the podcast “Dirty John,” by Christopher Goffard of The Los Angeles Times.
My colleagues on “The Daily” have spent six months documenting the reopening of Odessa High School in West Texas. On Thursday at 6 p.m. Eastern time they’ll celebrate graduation there live, with further reporting, a drum line performance and a commencement speech from La’Darius Marshall, star of the Emmy-award-winning Netflix series “Cheer.” Subscribers to The Times (that’s you, I hope!) can join them by signing up here.
Here’s some new fiction by John Edgar Wideman in the Virginia Quarterly Review, “Jordan.”
Finally, new music to play us off: Billie Eilish, “Lost Cause.” Listen to that and I’ll be back on Friday.