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I was looking for something sweet, possibly a fruit of some kind, but I wasn't impressed with the selection this week. Instead I saw this package of strange looking spikey green things labeled "White Cucumber" and had to buy it. I did a Google search to find recipes and I didn't find too many sites with white cucumber and the ones that I did, didn't have anything that looked like these. After further searching, I believe that these are Indian bitter melons.
Bitter melons are common in Asian cuisine, but it is also used for its medicinal properties. Apparently they help stimulate digestion, however they are also known to make heartburn and ulcers worse. There is also the promise that compounds found in these melons may help fight HIV.
I sliced the squash up and tried a piece. It was disgustingly bitter. I then soaked it in salt water to help reduce the bitterness like many websites recommended. After a day of soaking I tried a slice and it was still extremely bitter. The soaking did nothing. I fried them with red onion, garlic, soy sauce and hot Thai sesame oil and served them over rice. The verdict: They were still pretty bitter, but as I ate them it became more tolerable. The rice also helped dilute the bitterness somewhat. I probably wouldn't get these again. Try to ignore the dried out piece of chicken that I served next to this dish.
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