This Watermelon Steak Is Freaking People The Eff Out, And We Get It

If you thought that putting salt on a watermelon was a wild ride, you may want to sit down for this. A restaurant in New York City is offering up watermelon that’s cooked just like a ham, and people are losing their minds. I mean, when you think of watermelon, pork normally doesn’t come to mind.

The restaurant that served up this idea is called Ducks Eatery. Aside from smoking it, they also managed to make their melon dish look quite similar to an actual ham. It’s a daring new way to eat fruit. But keep in mind, it’s something you might not be able to recreate at home. According to the eatery, everyone who’s interested in giving the watermelon ham a try needs to contact the restaurant at least a week prior to arriving.

That might sound excessive, but there’s a good reason why the restaurant needs plenty of time to process the order. It’s because each watermelon ham literally takes days to create. Buzzfeed reports that each “ham” is smoked for eight straight hours, and then marinated in a brine that includes salt, spice, and ashes for four days. So, it’s kind of like prepping a Thanksgiving turkey if you’re really serious about getting it right.

Here’s what the watermelon ham actually looks like when it’s done:

Just watch how the pieces fall down when it’s sliced. It’s like no melon you’ve ever seen before:

One fan of the restaurant wrote on Instagram that the ham was so far out of the box that it was “exiled from reality,” while others claim that sorcery must have been involved.

But not everyone is a fan…

MONSTERS.

— No Awakatito (GatoInfame) (@NoAguacatito) August 8, 2018

Wait. WHAT?!?!

— Don Salamone (@donsalamone) August 8, 2018

Regardless of your take on watermelon ham, at least it’s good to know that even in the year 2018, food can still surprise us.

If a watermelon cake sounds like a dream come true to you, you have to check out our recipe for the dessert. And yes, it involves an actual watermelon.