Talk:Bitter melon

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Contents 1 Chinese characters 2 Quinine question 3 Recent reorganization 4 Recipes 5 Sweet bitter melon

[edit] Chinese characters

What are the Chinese characters for Bitter Melon (Foo Gwa)?

[edit] Quinine question

Does this plant contain quinine? Various websites claim it does, but I've been unable to locate a primary source for this info 4hodmt 15:20, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Recent reorganization

I have tried to organize a little without taking away any information. If I did it was a mistake.

I tried to separate the long list of names in many languages into those that are actually used in English text and those that are only used in their original languages. Basically, I googled for "the karela" and "the ampalaya" and got convincing results, but couldn't find a lot of relevant uses of "the pavakka" or "the karawila".

— Pekinensis 18:51, 20 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Recipes

My wife likes to stuff bitter melon with a pork mixture and boil it. We eat it with rice. The Pilipino version I had was baked and stuffed with ground beef and cheese. That one was mighty tasty! The bitterness can be somewhat alleviated by baptising it in soy sauce. Do Americanos really know about this fruit?Jlujan69 22:13, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

My mother was looking into it because of the connected diabetes information with it. I started eating it because its another good vegetable. There's a Chinese place in NJ (US) that always has it with the other hot food they make and I always get it. They even sell it not cooked. I've also found it in Korean markets and Indian markets in jersey. I've yet to buy it and cook it, but I found various recipes online. Psilocybin 06:25, 31 August 2006 (UTC)

In Chinese restruants in China, its often served as a cold dish of just bitter melon. cold dishes are like bread in american restruants, they are served first while your food is being cooked.

[edit] Sweet bitter melon

I have been trying to correct this statement but was edited out: "The fully ripe fruit turns orange and mushy, is too bitter to eat". Amazingly, bitten melow turns to very sweet like a fruit once it is ripe. Grown up in the countryside of China, one of my childhood joys was that my Dad would let some of the bitter melows ripe so my brother and I could eat them like fruits. Bitter melow is bitter before mature so it can fend of the animals, but turns to sweet when mature so the seeds can be spread by the animals - A common evolution strategy for many plants.

Bitter melon as it ripens become yellowish / orange at the "undulations." The pith remains mostly white but becomes more stringy. The individually seed are coated with a red flesh that is quite mild and sweet. The flesh itself become softer and less crunchy. I know this because my grandma grows several varieties of it annually.