# Are bitter melons actually edible?!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 7, 2012, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964 "2012-09-07T06:53:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964/1 "2012-09-07T06:53:59Z")
They sell them in the supermarket, even cleaned and sliced in saran wrapped styrofoam trays, I’m told they are eaten as a veggie.
I cannot begin to convey just how bitter they are, a small slice is I promise you the most bitter thing you have ever tasted. I like bitter, I like my coffee black, this is another universe of bitter, insanity given food form. And that was with two changing of water, I can’t even imagine what they would be like if you didn’t change the cooking water.
:eek:
> **[Momordica charantia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_melon)**
>
> Momordica charantia (commonly called bitter melon, goya, bitter apple, bitter gourd, bitter squash, balsam-pear and many more names listed below) is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, widely grown in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean for its edible fruit. Its many varieties differ substantially in the shape and bitterness of the fruit.
> Bitter melon originated in Africa where it was a dry-season staple food of ǃKung hunter-gatherers. Wild or semi-domesticated variants sp...
---
### Author:  [@tomcar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomcar)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964/2 "2012-09-07T08:14:47Z")
Slice them very thin.
Deep fry them.
Salt them.
They are delicious.
Or cook them down in a curry.
---
### Author:  [@tomcar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomcar)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964/3 "2012-09-07T08:21:25Z")
Slice them very thin.
Deep fry them.
Salt them.
They are delicious.
Or cook them down in a curry.
---
### Author:  [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964/4 "2012-09-07T09:59:02Z")
Slice them very thin.
Deep fry them.
Salt them.
Use as a coaster.
Slice them very thin.
Deep fry them.
Salt them.
Play Frisbee.
They’re a common ingredient in Okinawan food, but even cutting off small bits of a slice to mix into a big moutfull of other things, I never felt like it meshed with the rest of the food and was just tasteless and bitter.
On the other hand, one can develop a taste for Ukon Cha (Turmeric Tea).
---
### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964/5 "2012-09-07T10:51:44Z")
In my experience, they’re not always THAT bitter. Not sure if that was due to the preparation, or to the variety (maybe, like spiciness in chili peppers, there is a range of bitterness).
In any case, some swear that the yuckiness is proof of their nutritional or medicinal value. That’s a folk-knowledge type of correlation to make, but at least explains why some people choke 'em down.
---
### Author:  [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964/6 "2012-09-07T10:59:02Z")
It’s an acquired taste, but once you get used to the bitterness it can become almost addictive. We have them at least once a week in the summer, usually as an Okinawa-style stir-fry.
---
### Author:  [@Hokkaido\_Brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hokkaido_Brit)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964/7 "2012-09-07T13:06:53Z")
I like them just sliced wafer thin, salted and soaked then squeezed out and mixed with a can of tuna fish and some sesame dressing.
The middle furry bit is very bitter - use a spoon and make sure it’s all scraped out. You should end up with little green fanged smiles!
---
### Author:  [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964/8 "2012-09-07T13:32:34Z")
I almost wonder if they’d be good in some sort of deep fried application? Maybe really thin slices, salted after frying?
😉
---
### Author:  [@Normal\_Phase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Normal_Phase)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964/9 "2012-09-07T14:00:46Z")
YES and they are fucking amazing. You don’t eat them straight, you halve them lengthwise, scoop out the seeds and pulp, slice the rest thinly crosswise, then cook them up with (in our case) lots of South Indian spices. Then you mix a little bit (or a lot, depending on taste) of that in with a mouthful of rice and sambar or dal. Food-gasm on a plate, I swear. I’m addicted to that stuff.
We just cooked some last night, it’s waiting for me for lunch. Yum.
---
### Author:  [@Normal\_Phase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Normal_Phase)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964/10 "2012-09-07T14:02:07Z")
> [@jovan](#):
>
> It’s an acquired taste, but once you get used to the bitterness it can become almost addictive. We have them at least once a week in the summer, usually as an Okinawa-style stir-fry.
This word “almost” is unnecessary.
---
### Author:  [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964/11 "2012-09-07T14:14:02Z")
I’ve had them a time or two, and they didn’t seem all that bitter to me. So uh, yeah, I guess they’re edible.
---
### Author:  [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964/12 "2012-09-07T15:06:39Z")
I used to eat them regularly, and I agree they don’t seem that bitter. Maybe it’s a preparation thing.
---
### Author:  [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964/13 "2012-09-07T15:15:56Z")
There was a [wonderful bit about Bitter Melon in Stephen Levy’s _Hackers_](http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/networking/security/9781449390259/true-hackers-cambridge-the-fifties-and-sixties/greenblatt_and_gosper):
> [@](#):
>
> On a hacker excursion one April Fools’ Day, Gosper had a craving for a little-known dish called Bitter Melon. It was a wart-dotted form of green pepper, with an intense quinine taste that evoked nausea in all but those who’d painfully acquired the taste. For reasons best known to himself, Gosper decided to have it with sweet-and-sour sauce, and he wrote down the order in Chinese. The owner’s daughter came out giggling. “I’m afraid you made a mistake—my father says that this says ‘Sweet-and-Sour Bitter Melon.’” Gosper took this as a challenge. Besides, he was offended that the daughter couldn’t even read Chinese—that went against the logic of an efficient Chinese Restaurant System, a logic Gosper had come to respect. So, even though he knew his order was a preposterous request, he acted indignant, telling the daughter, “Of course it says Sweet-and-Sour Bitter Melon—we Americans always order Sweet-and-Sour Bitter Melon the first of April.” Finally, the owner himself came out. “You can’t eat!” he shouted. “No taste! No taste!” The hackers stuck to the request, and the owner slunk back to the kitchen.
>
> Sweet-and-Sour Bitter Melon turned out to be every bit as hideous as the owner promised. The sauce at that place was wickedly potent, so much so that if you inhaled while you put some in your mouth you’d choke. Combined with the ordinarily vile bitter melon, it created a chemical that seemed to squeak on your teeth, and no amount of tea or Coca-Cola could dilute that taste. To almost any other group of people, the experience would have been a nightmare. But to the hackers it was all part of the system. It made no human sense, but had its logic. It was The Right Thing; therefore every year on April Fools’ Day they returned to the restaurant and insisted that their appetizer be Sweet-and-Sour Bitter Melon.
---
### Author:  [@tomcar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomcar)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964/14 "2012-09-07T15:18:20Z")
Did I mention you slice… never mind 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964/15 "2012-09-07T15:19:24Z")
Oh they are delicious if cooked right. My mom used to make _karela_ and it was liberally coated in spices and so good.
---
### Author:  [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964/16 "2012-09-07T15:20:07Z")
I was with an asian friend at a local asian place that has a variety of “Americanized” and “less-Americanized” dishes. My friend got some dish with meat and bitter melon. I told him I’d never had it, and asked whether it was “really bitter” or just called that because it’s not sweet. He said, “Oh, it’s bitter… here try some.”
Holy crap that’s bitter. It was somewhat like the bitterness of an unripe persimmon, without the feeling that you ate a mouthful of sand. The taste didn’t appeal to me, but it was clearly food (ie, it didn’t have that “how can ANYONE eat this?” quality). If it was something I was used to, I’d probably like it fine, but my first impression was not deliciousness.
---
### Author:  [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964/17 "2012-09-07T15:30:23Z")
There’s at least one beer, like [this one from Okinawa](http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/13130/31943), that’s brewed with bitter melon in place of hops.
---
### Author:  [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964/18 "2012-09-07T16:19:56Z")
By now you know that the name is not just the name. I had some in a Filipino restaurant, and to me it tasted like I ate a mouthful of grass. I don’t think I’ll go back for another encounter, but the recipes posted here could change me…
---
### Author:  [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964/19 "2012-09-07T17:10:29Z")
Ah, Fu Gua. i was introduced to them by my Cantonese wife. It’s definitely an acquired taste of sorts, but can be oh so good. I slice them into thin rings and stir fry them with pork, garlic, and black beans. It’s become one of my specialty dishes and a cold-weather favorite!
I even have a photo recipe 😃
[http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/scotdor/fu%20gua/](http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/scotdor/fu%20gua/)
---
### Author:  [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964/20 "2012-09-07T17:30:45Z")
My wife likes it; she usually has it with beef and black bean sauce (Chinese-style).
I’ll eat some too if I’m hungry enough, but I don’t care for the flavour. It’s too bitter for me.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-bitter-melons-actually-edible/633964.md?page=2)