This recipe isn’t serious. It’s hard to be serious all the time with the recipes in this blog. People always ask for “fun apps” or “party apps,” so why not an app that is actually a game? The edible game industry is relatively untapped. You have bobbing for apples and various egg games around Easter like egg hunts, egg on a spoon… I think there should be more food-related board games. Imagine if Candy Land was actually made out of candy. That version should be the standard. Hi-Ho Cheery-O with real cherries. You could replace the parts in Operation with tiny chocolates. You are what you eat, right?

This whole thing started when I thought we had Jenga at our house, but we didn’t, and we were disappointed. Instead of going to the store or asking a friend to borrow it, we improvised. My friend, Perry, and I used to build random games in chemistry class in high school. We made a pool table once out of some green felt and plastic cups we found in the back room. We laid the felt across the table and attached the cups on the corners and sides with some tape and lined the edges with some cardboard table rails. Needless to say, our chemistry class was pretty unsupervised. And all the chemistry I’ve learned in my life came later in baking class.

But back to Jenga. We had a watermelon, and since you can cut it up into almost any shape, it seemed like a good material for our Jenga game. You can think of making the game pieces as good knife skills practice. You could probably soak the watermelon in some tequila and lime juice, and you’d have the fanciest drinking game ever. Otherwise, decorate a plate with some balsamic reduction, and shaved fennel, and when the tower falls you have salad. You could adjust the rules, too, and instead of restacking, just eat the pieces as you remove them. It’s probably more sanitary this way. Hey, just have everyone wash their hands first. Maybe have some things to dip the pieces in on the side, like a lime vinaigrette, black Hawaiian sea salt, honey-balsamic, or greek yogurt.

If you do end up playing, you’ll realize watermelon actually works better than wood. The watermelon pieces slide out more easily, and the natural sugars help the tower stick together. I miss the loud noise of the tower crashing, though, like in traditional Jenga. Watermelon’s pretty quiet. Don’t use an overly ripe melon. You want it firm. Cut your watermelon in even sections, then strips. Once you cut out one game piece, use it as guide for cutting out the other pieces, so they’re uniform.

Let me know how it goes if you try it out!