bitter melon 034A few weeks ago I mentioned that there wouldn’t be any more melon on our 52-week Challenge. Yet I bring you this.

But it’s not really a melon, more like the most bitter cucumber you could possibly imagine. One of those foods where you taste it and wonder “did the first people who ate this food think they might die?” Because we weren’t completely sure if we were dealing with a vegetable or poison.

I did do my research, and know that most people cook bitter melon into heavily-seasoned dishes like stews, but there were some people eating it raw. So we gave it a chance…and paid the price. I was tempted to drink a Clorox chaser after eating it. Anything to wash the taste out of my mouth. 

ME: This one is called a….sour melon? A bitter melon.

ME: What does it smell like?

LAUREN: Sour.

ME: Let me smell it….it smells a little bit like  cucumber to me.

LAUREN: Definitely.

ME: What does it look like?

LAUREN: A curly corn. A really curly piece of corn. And it looks like a roly poly but it’s a little bit green. One more thing….it looks like spinach.

ME: Emma what does it look like?

EMMA: It looks like meat.

ME: That’s actually a good description, it looks like squirrely raw meat.

ME: Sam, what does it look like?

SAM: Um, old beef.

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