A Cuban man introduced me to the curious practice of putting salt on watermelon. It was such a strange application for salt that my first thought was that there was something wrong with his sense of taste, my second thought being that he didn’t know what watermelon was and how it should be eaten.
But when I inquired, he told me that it was common practice among Cubans to salt watermelon, and he encouraged me to give it a try. So I did. It wasn’t bad. I still prefer my watermelon unsalted, but it didn’t taste as bizarrely unpalatable as I expected it would: It was a pleasant, sweet-salty combination that accentuated the sweetness of the melon. (A sprinkling of salt probably also enhances the rehydration value of watermelon by replenishing the sodium lost from the body through perspiration—sort of like natural Gatorade.)
Probably the second strangest use of a familiar condiment that I’ve tried was adding peanut butter to oatmeal, which I learned from a woman from Oregon who would fix her daughter’s oatmeal that way. Besides being a surprisingly tasty complement to the maple and brown sugar flavor of the oatmeal and adding a delightful creaminess, peanut butter fortifies the cereal with additional vitamins and with protein and healthy saturated and unsaturated fats which increase its satiety factor and sustaining power.

If you like peanut butter and oatmeal separately, try combining them sometime for a tasty treat. (I recommend adding an ice cube or two of evaporated milk also, for extra richness and creaminess.)
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