Water Ice – Watermelon and Feta Salad with Arugula and Pickled Onions

As summer approached and the Philadelphia weather got warmer and more humid when I was young, we looked for ways to cool ourselves down. It was rare that we found a pool as they are hard to come by in the big city and I didn’t live in an area where they opened fire hydrants for relief. So, we would have to beat the heat in another manner. One way was water ice.

Known as Italian ice in other places, this frozen treat – sugar, water, flavoring, color, and sometimes even real fruit – was either scoopable like ice cream or looser and slushier in consistency, depending on your source. Unlike a snow cone, with flavored syrup doused over the top of shaved ice, with water ice the sweet taste was integrated more fully into the treat. It was always cool and refreshing.

Water ice was available all over the city, but my teenage friend Dave and I would travel great distances to South Philadelphia for Italiano’s, the best there was. This was in character, since Dave and I were gluttons. We loved eating and often ate to excess, to the detriment of our digestive systems.

Late at night when there were no other possibilities and the car was not an option (and decades before Door Dash), we would walk great distances to the South Street Diner, which never closed. We should have been asleep, but an empty feeling in our stomachs, or at least our minds, made us take the journey.

In high school we would sneak off campus at midday to satisfy our hunger. We drove in Dave’s car to get whatever we wanted since a soft pretzel and Tastykake from the school cafeteria was not enough. Sometimes we found ourselves at a food cart or got fast food, but more often than not we found our way to the original Lee’s on Cheltenham Avenue for Italian hoagies that were in our opinion superior to anywhere else.

But in the warm weather, our destination was the window on the corner at 12th and Shunk, where we got water ice.

Italiano’s was an old school operation deep in the heart of Italian South Philadelphia. To take your order they slid open a window in a converted room in their house, revealing jars of candy and bins of other treats in addition to the freezers containing water ice. It was the kind of place where Nonna sat there in a rocking chair, while another family member scooped the ices. They had a wide variety of flavors from which to choose, although I inevitably chose mango or root beer, with classic lemon making an occasional appearance.

The water ice was served in wax-covered paper cups with a plastic spoon. It was the slushy kind, akin to a 7-11 Slurpee, without the slight chemical notes that get you in the back of the throat from that corporate version. No matter what variety was selected, the flavor lasted until the very end, unlike a Slurpee where the taste wanes and you’re left with unflavored slush at the bottom of the cup.

That first mouthful was heavenly, sweet, and chilling, as if I had jumped into an ice-cold fruity pool. It instantly cooled me down, reducing my body temperature by at least 10 degrees, if not in reality, at least in my mind.

And then I would bite off the end of a pretzel log, a bag of five for a quarter, the only one of the treats behind that window that counted, besides the water ice itself. We were instructed by Henry Thompson, a fellow student from high school who was surprised to find us deep in South Philadelphia one warm afternoon, to stick the pretzel deep into our cup. It absorbed the liquid, along with the flavor, providing a salty-sweet bite that was perfect.

I always ate my water ice quickly – it was so good and refreshing – until I was halted by the searing pain of a brain freeze, somewhere between my upper palate and frontal lobe. It forced me to slow down and eat more thoughtfully.

Sometimes instead of straight water ice, Dave would get gelati which was invented at Italiano’s – water ice with soft frozen custard added, always vanilla. But that was too much for me. When it comes to water ice, I’m a purist; I prefer mine unadulterated, its purpose to quench my thirst in the summer heat, which the custard prevented.

When I left for college I never really moved back to Philadelphia. In the following years I may have made my way to Italiano’s a few times on visits home, but they closed in 2013. Luckily this was also around the time of the rise of Rita’s, a chain started in the Philadelphia suburbs which has spread widely and now dominates the water ice scene. Their water ice has a similar slushy consistency to Italiano’s and they even sell gelati for those who are interested. No idea if they sell pretzel logs.

There were a couple of Rita’s branches near my home on Long Island, but neither of them made it. Now when I’m travelling and I come across a Rita’s I often stop for water ice. It is invigorating on a hot summer day and always reminds me of Italiano’s on the corner of 12^th and Shunk.

Watermelon and Feta Salad with Arugula and Pickled Onions

With sweet, ice-cold watermelon, this salad is as cool and refreshing as an Italiano’s water ice on a hot summer day, plus, it is considerably healthier. The salty feta, which complements but doesn’t dominate, even reminds me of the pretzel rod we stuck deep into our cups in South Philadelphia.

Pickled onions, while not essential, add a nice bite to the final result. There are lots of ways to make pickled onions, however, this is my preferred method. They must sit for about an hour, so be sure to prepare ahead.

This salad is endlessly flexible, so add more or less of any of the salad ingredients to your liking.

serves 4, 15 minutes, plus 1 hour pickling time

½ large red onion sliced thinly in half-moons

1 Tbsp. mirin

1 Tbsp. unseasoned rice vinegar

1 Tbsp. sushi vinegar (or sushi seasoning)

3 Tbsp. orange juice

1 Tbsp. white wine vinegar

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

zest of ½ lime

½ tsp. honey

½ tsp. Dijon mustard

¼ tsp. kosher salt

¼ tsp. fresh ground black pepper

3 oz. arugula

6 cups ice cold watermelon cut in bite-size cubes

4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled

1. Make the pickled onions. Peel the red onion and cut in half through the root mass. Lay it on the flat side and very thinly slice the onion into half-moons. Separate with your fingers and place in a large bowl. Add mirin, rice vinegar, and sushi vinegar. Use a fork to toss so that all slices of onion are coated. Set aside for about an hour, tossing occasionally to submerge all the onion. Pickled onions can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
2. Make the salad dressing. Whisk together orange juice, white wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, lime zest, honey, Dijon mustard, kosher salt, and black pepper in a bowl until well combined.
3. Place the arugula on a large serving dish or divide among 4 individual plates. Place watermelon on top and gently toss to mix with the arugula. Top with crumbled feta and pickled onions.
4. Spoon dressing over the top and serve immediately.

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