Lately on my Facebook feeds, I’ve been seeing a certain feed that keeps coming up, over the last number of months.  If you are on any vegan Facebook pages whatsoever, the video of a marinated and smoked watermelon, apparently invented by a New York restaurant known for its meat.

Yes smoked watermelon sounds weird.  Cooking watermelon in general is something most of us have never heard of.

The reason for writing this blog post, is to address the very strange phenomenon of the seemingly rash negative comments that I keep seeing over and over concerning this video and the seeming ‘abuse’ of the watermelon – that is tongue and cheek.

If you are unfamiliar with the video, here’s one such from YouTube.

The most recent posting, which prompted me to finally write about the subject, was on a Seitan message board.   If you’re not familiar with Seitan, it’s the vegan’s answer to meat.  Vegans around the world are buying plant based products that taste and have the texture of meat.  On this particular Facebook group, vegans are using various plant-based products and methods to manufacture foods that are similar to meat products.

So, recently, this video was posted.   The first poster said “”This is the first time I’ve seen the watermelon posted in a group and it wasn’t just splashed with hate around it lol I appreciate you”

However, it did not take long for hateful, negative comments to become the norm.

“uh, no…don’t want anything that looks that much like a dead animal.”   Why are you in a forum that creates the taste and texture of dead animals?

“”Looks disturbing… ugh. Totally spoiled fruit… Fresh…eat fresh…”   No grilled pineapple and apple crisp for you!

“Yuk”

“But why?”

“bet it tastes like a salty ass warm watermelon. Lmao.”   Hmmm.  Remember when people started adding salty feta to watermelon not so long ago?  Anyway.

 “Please stop f-ing posting that watermelon video”   But they used the full f-word.

All of this from a watermelon!

Vegans!   Get a hold of yourselves!

How is marinating and smoking a watermelon is somehow morally reprehensible?

Shouldn’t we be picking our battles?   We have so many, why make this one of them?

I posted this comment… “We’re in a group where people take highly processed parts of wheat, mixed with tofu and 5 other items, process it, spice it, steam it, marinate it and sautee it( in order to look like meat),  but someone marinates and grills a watermelon and everyone loses their shit. hahaha Sometimes like they have the moral high ground on the issue?”

The next comment, I believe is correct…

“What’s great is people coming up with new ideas that are plant-based – opening up a whole new world of food!”

 

Exactly!

We should embrace this!  Food is evolving and possibly away from meat!   Just because you would not like it or try it, doesn’t mean you need to trash it.  Maybe your omni friends might like it.  Maybe they will acquire a taste for such things and order this instead of meat?

Many also commented negatively on the $75 price tag.  While I personally would not pay that much for any food item at a restaurant, I am proud that the humble little watermelon – a vegan staple – has attracted this much appreciation and value!   While some vegans look upon this as a bad thing, I say “finally”!   Our cruelty-free gem has become a hot commodity in the fine dining world!  Maybe eventually, more and more, the $75 dollar dead cows will be replaced with items with the same price tag, targeting the same market that are cruelty-free.   May other of earth’s fruits and veggies follow!