While the table is empty, a long board off to the side has been laid with at least twenty dishes. A young man, an Avox, stands at attention by the spread. When I ask if I can serve myself, he nods assent. I load a plate with eggs, sausages, batter cakes covered in thick orange preserves, slices of pale purple melon.
Page 87, The Hunger Games
As far as I can tell, this is the only piece of food that Suzanne Collins mentions in the book that doesn’t actually exist, so I had to improvise and try to make my own. The obvious way to do it was… to simply dye slices of melon purple. The result, while looking like how I wanted it to, had one unfortunate side effect: it tastes absolutely disgusting!
I am dead serious, people. Casaba melon soaked in red/blue food coloring makes the melon pretty much uneatable. If you make this for a Hunger Games themed party, be sure you make a big sign next to the plate saying, “DO NOT EAT, DISPLAY ONLY!”
But other than that, looks pretty cool huh? 😀 It’s very very delicate, so you have to handle with extreme care.
Another note: honeydew melon doesn’t work for this. You need a totally white flesh melon.
what if you soaked it in grape juice?
Not sure how the flavor would be there, either, but we often eat grapes and melons together.
Great idea, I will try that with the rest of the melon!
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Perhaps the purple melon was biologically engineered to look purple but taste delicious, it being from the Capitol and them liking really unnatural looking stuff.
Haha, that’d make sense!
Oh wow! These are freaky looking, like slimy monster claws. Weird that the flavor changed with food coloring.
Haha, didn’t think about that, but yeah, it does look scary.
I don’t think it’s weird at all. When you dye fondant you can’t put too much food coloring in it, cause it will make it take like poo. Well, not poo, but like food coloring. Which as we can see, it doesn’t taste very good. lol
Well, someone gave me the great idea to use POM juice, so I’ll try that.
This looks awesome!
Why didn’t you try soaking the melon in fruit juices until you got the right color? Pomegranate juice has been used as a dye for centuries.
Well that makes me feel dumb, especially since I already have some in my fridge. lol
Will you try again and update us?! I want to throw a party for the premiere of the movie before my friends and I see it! This will be awesome! You rock!
Yes, I definitely will! I have to wait til my market has a new stock. I’m pretty sure the melon I bought was old! Hmph!
I wonder…could you have soaked it in grape gelatin or grape koolaid?
Elementary schools mix koolaids and pears all the time. It may work as well. 🙂
Also, if you do use dye make sure you use the “flavorless” red dye – otherwise it has a really bad taste. They sell it where cake decorating supplies are sold.
Kool-Aid packets might work too!
Update us when you see if grape juice works because i so want to try this! Also blueberries could work if you squeeze the juices out. and if it’s too blue you can add some strawberries. I saw them do that to die frosting on a cake show, so the icing wouldn’t taste to artificial and like food coloring!:)
I’m waiting for a good melon to go on sale before I try again!
“Uneatable”…
Really?
How about inedible…
Haha, good point. Still, it’s fun to make up words. 😀
another idea other than the koolaid one i had too: actually 2 ideas:
1st – try seedless watermelon and some blue dye/juice?
2nd: grape soda or juice? won’t help the sugar content but honestly, as a ‘novelty food’ who cares???
Wow those are cool….but creepy to. What kind of melon do you use for that i definetly wana try that
What if you were to try poaching them in a purple-ish liquid? They might taste better…
Some sort of cooking wine might work, but they would end up reddish. You could make a combination of juices and then cook the melon down in it the juice.
You could try soaking it in purple kool aid. It might taste better
Yeah, I will! The problem is more finding melon that are white or clear! They’re so expensive. 🙁
Have you tried beet juice? It’s used commonly as a coloring in many recipes and doesn’t compromise the flavor of fruits.
What if you dyed it with say raspberries and blueberies?
So did the grape juice or POM juice work?
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i did this but what i did was put purple food die in water and mixed that up and left the melons in untill serving they tasted fine
wondering if soaking Honey dew in purple grape juice or Dark juice would work for a better taste might try i will comment here if I do 🙂
wow, thats a great idea!
I’d actually suggest beet and/or purple carrot juice.
I have a quick question- what if you used watermelon and use just a few drops of blue food coloring? Wouldnt it not taste to bad since it has a VERY distinguished flavor on its own? Please respond.
Empty out half a watermelon and make purple gelatin and freeze and slice
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Well, there’s a thing called purple Watermelon…