Medicinal properties of Chinese bitter melon momordica. Melon planting and care in open ground, recipes for preparing Bitter melon

Bitter melon or momordica Other names for momordica are balsamic pear. In Russian, bitter melon is called both bitter melon, bitter gourd and bitter cucumber. The names momordica (from the Latin Momordica charantia) and karela are also found. This type of melon, growing in Asia and Africa, contains a huge amount of momordicin, a substance that gives the fruit astringency and a very bitter taste. The upside is that bitter melon provides a unique combination of vitamins and minerals. It is extremely useful for reducing blood sugar levels in diabetics. There is a hypothesis that it even helps in the treatment of HIV. Well, to get rid of the unusual taste for melon, local craftsmen use various cooking technologies - from pickling to blanching. Beneficial properties of bitter melon Special fans of the vegetable say that its main value is in the prevention and fight against malaria. Everything is used - seeds, leaves, pulp and skin. Bitter melon also contains 32 active chemicals and a lot of iron. And in the relay race for usefulness, bitter melon wins in the category: for beta-carotene content (beats broccoli) for calcium content (wins over spinach) for potassium content leaves bananas behind. Bitter melon, nostrils flaring with importance, polishes its victory with vitamins A, C, B1, B3, phosphorus and dietary fiber. Momordica or Chinese bitter melon is widely used in folk medicine. The leaves of the plant are used to treat cough, hypertension, headaches and other types of pain. Momordica helps regulate blood sugar levels, so it effectively helps with diabetes. The red berries inside the fruit taste sweet. They contain fatty oil rich in carotene. Thanks to it, when eating berries, the level of hemoglobin in the blood increases and the immune system is strengthened. Momordica berries are used in the treatment of peptic ulcers and gastritis. Half an hour before meals, you need to chew three seeds and eat them with a spoon of honey. Treatment lasts 9 days. For a cold, you can prepare a tincture from the fruit (the seeds must be extracted). The fruits are cut into small pieces and poured into 100 ml. vodka. After infusing for two weeks in a dark, cool place, take the tincture 1 teaspoon three times a day. Treatment lasts 3 days. Momordica is a good appetite stimulant and an effective remedy for gastrointestinal infections, viral infections and even some types of cancer. Its fruits and seeds lower cholesterol levels in the blood, counteract the formation of cholesterol plaques on the walls of blood vessels, cleanse blood vessels, and reduce the likelihood of strokes and heart attacks. Also, fruits and seeds can neutralize cancer cells, bacteria and viruses. Crushed fresh leaves applied to the site of an insect bite help relieve itching and prevent the appearance of wounds and bite marks. You can also apply a cut fresh fruit or a tincture of them to the bite site. Decoctions of leaves and fruits are used for prostatitis, urolithiasis, sclerosis, alcoholism and smoking (to quit). How to eat? In fact, bitter melon is no more difficult to deal with than eggplant. The method is the same - cut it into small pieces, sprinkle it with salt and give it a therapeutic rest in the fresh air for 10-20 minutes. Afterwards we wash and cook. You can simply throw it in salt water, bring it to a boil, simmer for a minute, and then throw it in ice water. Cruel, but effective. Bitter melon can be prepared as a side dish, combined with seasonings, curries and even coconut milk. Unripe fruits are cut into half rings and fried or stewed. Served as a side dish for rice and meat dishes. Shoots and fresh leaves are used as spices to season various dishes. They give dishes a slightly bitter but pleasant taste. You can eat fruits soaked in salted water - they are rich in protein. They can be eaten either on their own or as part of salads.

Today we were in a large Chinese grocery store. How many times have I looked at various unfamiliar vegetables - but I always passed by... but today I decided to buy Ind bittermelon - (Bitter melon or mamordica) - more officially - Momordica charantia. I decided to figure it out at home... So, thanks to the Internet... - I found a lot of useful information on how to cook and everything - it turned out that it is also a very healthy vegetable.

Useful properties of bitter melon (Bitter melon)

Special fans of the vegetable say that its main value is in the prevention and fight against malaria. Everything is used - seeds, leaves, pulp and skin.
Bitter melon also contains 32 active chemicals and a lot of iron. And in the relay race for usefulness, Bitter Melon wins the category:

• for beta-carotene content (bypasses broccoli)
• for calcium content (wins over spinach)
• due to its potassium content it leaves behind bananas.

Bitter melon, nostrils flaring with importance, polishes its victory with vitamins A, C, B1, B3, phosphorus and dietary fiber.

Adherents of Bitter melon have created a whole club where they quietly push it to foolish Europeans. The club is called the National Bitter Melon Council. They also recommend drinking bitter melon juice (necessarily diluted, melon juice can harm ulcers and gastritis sufferers), 50 ml per day, or in small portions, 5 ml each, and adding it to food (down with malaria!).
We won’t write about other beneficial qualities, but the list includes the prevention of HIV, cancer and other unpleasant diseases. We’d better tell you how to cook it.

1.

2.

Bitter melon can be prepared as a side dish, combined with seasonings, curries and even coconut milk. Recipe borrowed from a Filipino girl.

- 200 grams of pork ribs
– 1 medium bitter melon
- a bunch of green beans
- 1 eggplant
– 1 shallot and clove of garlic
- 2 red tomatoes
- small corns (5-6 pieces)
Also add parsley, fish sauce, butter and salted soy sauce to taste.

Easy to prepare:

• Cook the ribs, at this time cut the vegetables into cubes.
• Remove the meat from the bone and throw it into the frying pan, add the garlic.
• After frying, remove the meat and leave a third of the oil in the pan.
• Add tomatoes and onions, and a little later - bitter melon. Simmer for 10 minutes and invite the rest of the vegetables to the party. Add the corn last (after 15 minutes). Season them with herbs and sauces.
• When the vegetables are soft, add the pork again. We simmer for another 5-7 minutes, and rejoice in our victory! It turns out not bad at all.

domashnij-portal.ru

Possible reasons

When we buy a small round local melon or a long Central Asian melon with a mind-blowing aroma, we expect a feast of sweet taste in our mouth. If instead we taste bitterness, then something is wrong with the melon.

Most often, the reason is that the fetus could be affected by fungal infections, after which an unpleasant taste appears in the mouth. An increased content of nitrates will also not make the pulp sweeter. To avoid such troubles, you need to carefully consider the fruits when purchasing and do not take those with damaged skins. Remember that cracks are an open road for infections and bacteria, and a bitter taste in the mouth helps us stop in time.

But “bitter melon” is a completely different plant; it is also called Indian cucumber or Chinese melon. This very beautiful vine from the pumpkin family is represented by 20 currently known species, including annual and perennial plants. But two of them are most often cultivated: Momordica charantia (from the Latin name) and Cochin.

They came to us from the Indian tropics, the Chinese south and the Caribbean islands, where their wild counterparts grow. Despite its southern origin, “bitter melon” has taken root in our dachas and garden plots. Some were captivated by the beauty of the plant, especially the bright exotic fruits, others liked the unusual dishes made from them, and still others pin their hopes on amazing medicinal properties.

Thin shoots grow up to 4 meters, they are strong enough to hold large carved leaves of bright green color. Yellow flowers bloom in turn - first the male ones with a pleasant sweetish smell, then the female ones. Almost immediately after pollination, ovaries form, large green fruits grow, similar to warty cucumbers; as they ripen, they acquire a yellow-orange color.

Summer residents value momordica for its decorative value: any fence can be decorated if you grow a vine with large, beautifully outlined leaves of rich green color along it, with fruits up to 25 cm in length, which, when ripe, turn from green to bright orange.

This plant is very beautiful, it strikes with its tropical brightness in the midst of our discreet nature. Everything about this culture is beautiful and unusual to our eyes, even the seeds. Surprisingly, it is very easy to grow. It feels great not only in greenhouses, but also in the open air; you can place it on the balcony or even on the windowsill. True, there is one caveat - in a short summer it is not always possible to get ripened fruits, which is why many grow it through seedlings.

Chemical composition of bitter melon

“Bitter melon” can amaze not only with its spectacular appearance, but also with its changing taste. And the chemical composition of the fruits puts the most healthy and nutritious vegetables in our garden to shame. Momordica contains:

• more proteins, carbohydrates, dietary fiber and sugars than eggplant and bell pepper;
• more beta-carotene than broccoli;
• twice as much calcium as the notorious spinach;
• more potassium than a banana.

In addition, bitter melon also contains a lot of iron, magnesium, zinc and phosphorus, folic acid, which is so necessary for the bone marrow. The vitamins are selected better than in any multivitamin complex: group B - for the nervous system, E - against aging, C and F - for strength and vigor. And all this can be obtained from one plant! But it’s not always pleasant to eat it because of the bitterness. Moreover, the more ripe the fruit, the more bitter its pulp is in the mouth.

Unripe fruits are crispy and juicy, like a green cucumber or bell pepper. The seeds are removed from them before cooking. The pulp of unripe fruits is eaten raw, canned, boiled and fried. They use recipes from Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, Vietnamese cuisines. It is interesting and pleasant to eat momordica with yogurt, meat or potatoes, or include it in vegetable stews. For us, these are unusual exotic dishes. That's why it can be fun to try them. For example, Okinawan cuisine in Japan offers dishes that simply melt in your mouth.

Ripe momordica leaves behind a very bitter taste, which is why it is more often used in traditional medicine than in cooking.

The consumption of fruits and seeds, due to their amazing chemical composition, has a healing effect on the entire body. They help cleanse and strengthen blood vessels, stimulate the functioning of the heart, liver, kidneys, pancreas, strengthen the immune system and the body's resistance to infectious diseases.

Many saw in this plant a panacea for all diseases, which cannot but cause alarm. It is known that it can cause poisoning in children and worsen the condition of patients with ulcers of the digestive system. Long-term use of momordica by Tibetan, Chinese or Japanese traditional medicine should not contribute to its uncontrolled use in our reality - everything must be approached rationally and carefully.

Proper care of melon

Chinese melon is not difficult to grow in temperate climates. It is propagated by seeds and cuttings.

More often, seeds are used to grow annual plants through seedlings. The darkest ones are selected from them, disinfected with potassium permanganate, after which they are placed on a damp napkin smeared with honey and left near the central heating radiator. After 2 weeks, the sprouted seeds are planted in peat cups. The leaf soil is mixed with humus, heated for disinfection, the seeds are lightly pressed into it, edge down, and covered with heated sand on top. Crops are created with a greenhouse effect with a temperature of at least +20 degrees and high humidity. After a couple of weeks, the cups with sprouted seedlings can be opened. Then it is watered, fed with potassium-phosphorus fertilizers, hardened, and at the end of May it is planted outside.

The plant needs to choose a dry, bright place with light nutritious soil, and prepare supports for the vine. As the plant grows, it is thinned out so that the leaves and new shoots do not shade each other, otherwise this will negatively affect the harvest.

When working with the plant, your hands must be protected, otherwise its burning hairs will leave burns after contact.

This tropical beauty loves moisture, but does not tolerate stagnation of water at the roots. In the middle of the hot summer, it is watered daily, preferably in the evening, and in the morning it is worth slightly loosening the soil. It is added as it is washed out. The vine is fed with complex mineral fertilizers after 3 weeks; you can use a liquid solution of a mixture of cow manure and chicken droppings.

Among the diseases, you need to be wary of gray rot, bacteriosis, and powdery mildew. Aphids may bother you. If such troubles happen, colloidal sulfur gives a good effect; the affected plants are sprayed with it, diluting 40 g in 10 liters of water. Plants are also powdered with wood ash.

For food, the fruits are collected approximately 10 days after the formation of the ovary - they have already grown, but are not yet ripe, the skin has turned yellow, but has not yet turned orange. If you wait a couple more days, the fruit will become very bitter, and eating it will be accompanied by an unpleasant sensation in the mouth.

Momordica is not difficult to grow. Caring for her can be a pleasure. It will decorate your summer cottage and even improve your health. But before eating this exotic plant, you should study the issue very carefully and try only a small portion. It is not advisable to give it to children.

plodovie.ru

It's already the end of July. And the melon season begins. I really love this vegetable. I like sweet and juicy fruits. But when buying melons, it is not always possible to purchase such fruits.

In addition, nitrates are now very actively used during cultivation, which then enter our body and affect our health.

Today I will tell you how to choose melons correctly so that they are tasty, juicy and without nitrates. There are several simple rules when choosing it.

Let's start with the appearance. After all, first of all, we choose a melon based on its appearance.

An even yellow color indicates that it is ripe. The presence of a green spot on the peel, on the contrary, is a sign that the fruit is still green. Often sellers say that such a melon is ripe and you should not pay attention to this green spot.

Here you should be firm and not be persuaded by sellers. And choose another vegetable.

Now let's look at what the brown and grayish spots on the peel mean. Many people think that such melons are tasty and juicy. But it is not so. A melon with such spots is already rotting a little. How to be in this case?

In this situation, you can take a melon, but it won’t last long. And a fruit with brown spots will be more bitter than a fruit without such spots. This must be kept in mind.

There are also melons with cracks and scratches. What to do with such vegetables? Is it worth choosing them?

It’s better not to take such melons. Since scratches and cracks are places where harmful microorganisms accumulate.

Just don't confuse real scratches on the skin with a type of melon that has horizontal stripes all over the skin.

In addition to scratches on the peel, you can see scars. Such scars indicate that the melon was once damaged. But now it is intact, there are no scratches and it can be eaten.

Now let's figure out what a melon should feel like. It should not be too hard and not too soft.

If the melon is hard and cannot be pressed with your finger, then it is still green inside.

And vice versa, if it is too soft and fingerprints remain after pressing, then it is already overripe or rotten. Overripe fruits lose their juiciness and will no longer taste like honey.

Those who are accustomed to determining the quality of products by their sense of smell can use it when buying melons.

A pleasant aroma emanates from the delicious juicy fruits.

A beautiful-looking melon, which also feels good to the touch, but has almost no smell, is most likely stuffed with a large amount of chemical fertilizers.

You can select melons by hitting them like a watermelon. Only here there are some nuances. If you tap the melon and it makes a loud ringing sound, then the fruit is still green.

And if the sound is not ringing, closer to dull, then the fruit is already ripe.

Now let's look at how to choose fruits by the tail.

Very often, sellers, in order to collect several harvests of melons from a plot during the season, twist the tails of the picked unripe fruits so that they ripen faster.

A ripe fruit has a thick and dry tail. But if you break it at the base, it will be wet.

There are fruits that do not have a tail. In this case, you need to press on the spout of the melon (there is a tail on one side, and a spout on the other). The nose of a ripe fruit springs when pressed.

If the nose is hard, then the melon is green. But there are varieties with a hard nose.

Above, we discussed how to choose the right vegetable at the market. Now we will look at which melon is better to buy in the supermarket. The same rules apply here as in the market.

I’ll just say a few words about buying half fruits.

First of all, you need to keep in mind that a melon cut in half already loses many of its consumer properties. Therefore, it is better not to buy half fruits.

To insure yourself against nitrates, when purchasing, you need to ask the seller to cut off the melon. And look at its flesh.

If veins are visible on the pulp (slightly noticeable), then the melon is stuffed with nitrates or saltpeter.

You also need to pay attention to the seeds and fibers that are located between the seeds.

If the melon seeds are empty, then this first of all indicates that it is unripe. And gray fibers are a sign that it was fed with nitrates.

Melon grown without nitrates has yellow fibers.

Unripe seeds may also indicate that the vegetable has been overfed with nitrates.

There is another way to determine whether a melon contains chemical fertilizers or not. Look at the color of the strip that is located between the peel and the pulp. Yellow color indicates chemical fertilizer content.

If this stripe is greenish, then the fruit is not yet ripe.

Now let’s look at the case if the melon is ripe by all external signs (the color is right, and it feels right to the touch, without scratches or cracks), but if you cut it, it will smell and be juicy, but it has no smell when whole . What to do in this case?

The absence of odor in a whole melon is a sign that it has been treated with urea or urine. This gives it a beautiful appearance, but it then contains ammonia.

You can ask the seller for documents stating that the product was grown without chemicals. But you shouldn’t trust the documents completely. Since documents can be issued for a batch of melons that are actually grown without chemicals. And there will be fruits with chemicals on sale.

Read also:

ekoday.ru

Alexander, if you don’t care what scientists say, then we, in the format of a plant forum, do not care. Although it’s surprising how a graduate of an agricultural university can “don’t care,” isn’t it really interesting?

1. The fact that it offended you personally, excuse me, your nickname is too “loud”, this obliges you... As the saying goes: “You call yourself a load, get into the back.”

I didn’t say anything about the fact that there was “no place” to observe. My words about the impossibility of verifying observations personally implied the impossibility of correctly setting up experiments. Various options for growing and cross-pollination, including manual pollination, with isolation from pollinating insects. To ensure that it is known in each group of samples what is pollinated with what. One hundred percent isolation of control plants from uncontrolled cross-pollination. In the future, the comparison of the resulting fruits in different groups and with the control ones is not only visual, but also “instrumental”, that is, their comparison of their physical and chemical characteristics. The amount of material in each group must be sufficient for the reliability of the conclusions. You should probably know the rules for setting up biological experiments better than me...

2. Fruits, whatever organs they are, are parts of the mother plant, and the parts of the fruit for which we grow them have the genome of the mother plant, they grow from the tissues of the mother plant, don’t they? Here are the seeds, this is no longer only maternal, when foreign pollen germinates, they already have paternal genes. However, even in this there are deviations. And when pollinated by foreign pollen, the seeds in the fruit can contain only the maternal genome, with apogamous seed formation. Then the daughter plants from the seeds exactly repeat the characteristics of the mother plant, despite pollination by foreign pollen. The phenomenon of apogamy is characteristic, in particular, of some citrus fruits.

3. It is a known fact that when some types and varieties of citrus fruits are pollinated, the number of seeds increases. But what does this have to do with the change in the characteristics of the fruits of the mother plant? This is a question of compatibility or incompatibility of plants during pollination. In the industrial cultivation of citrus fruits, an increase in the number of seeds worsens the commercial quality of fruits declared as seedless, but cross-pollination does not directly affect the taste of the fruit. A lemon pollinated by a tangerine will not become sweet, a lemon pollinated by an orange will not become orange, and a tangerine pollinated by a grape will not grow the size of a ball. And no matter who was pollinated with what, a lemon will smell like a lemon, a tangerine will smell like a tangerine, etc.

4. Yes, genetics is a developing science, but this does not mean that there is nothing unambiguous in it.

The first fruits, not only of pears, but also of apple trees and citrus fruits, often have deviations from the fruits of subsequent years, but these are not “qualitative”, but “quantitative” deviations. The genotype of a plant does not change depending on the number of years it has lived. Qualitatively, a pear will not be reborn into anything else. I respect Michurin very much as a brilliant practitioner, but as far as theory is concerned, at the beginning of his activity he was mistaken in many ways. But he observed and looked for answers, and in our time many answers have already been found.

By the way, you write about two different phenomena. 1. Deviations in some characteristics of fruits in young plants and 2. Changes in the shape of the fruit during vegetative propagation. These are unrelated things, and their reasons are different.

5. I don’t deny about peppers, but this phenomenon of the appearance of bitterness in sweet peppers when pollinated by bitter ones is characteristic only of peppers. This should not be transferred to other plants. That is, pollination has nothing to do with the bitterness of cucumbers, nothing at all.

As for advice, do not plant melons and cucumbers next to each other. I admit, I haven’t planted melons at all; it’s bad for melons in our climate. But you are not only talking about melons, you also mention other hybrids of the pumpkin family. So, in our area, all the owners of six acres plant cucumbers, zucchini and pumpkins nearby, because in a small “patch” the plants cannot be isolated from each other, even if you want to. Everything naturally cross-pollinates with each other, since bees and bumblebees don’t care in what order they visit their flowers, however, the result is a normal harvest - cucumbers, zucchini and pumpkins, with all their inherent characteristics (if the seeds were not originally hybrid). If, during the initial sowing, some kind of pumpkin suddenly grew on the zucchini plant, it is not the fault of the pumpkin planted nearby, and the grade of zucchini seeds did not correspond to the declared one.

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Today we fell into our clutches with a green, oblong, wrinkled dude who strongly resembles a zucchini after a ruthless mutation. The dude's name is Bitter melon or, more formally, Momordica charantia.

Let's not hide, we are still gastronomic perverts. And we succumb to the temptation to snag yet another unprecedented crap in a Balinese store and eat it with fanatical pleasure. We bring the prey home, dissect it, remove the skin, cut it, fry it, stew it, mock it in every possible way and taste it. We will not hide this invaluable, life-threatening experience and will share it with you. Another object will appear regularly on Balish, which we will mercilessly torture.

So, today we fell into our paws with a green, oblong, wrinkled dude who strongly resembles a zucchini after a ruthless mutation. The dude's name is Bitter melon or, more formally, Momordica charantia. To put it in Russian – Bitter melon. Look how scary she is.

Our first acquaintance with her happened several months ago. This goat got stuck in her throat the first time she tried to taste it. We tried eating it raw, boiled, fried, sprinkled with seasonings and even (oh gods!) soaked in milk. But no. The green, shriveled mutants dried up in our refrigerator, along with our enthusiasm. A few months later, having recovered from the stress, we took up the matter again. We carefully studied the “enemy” and... were pleasantly surprised.

So, what is Bitter melon and how to deal with it?

Bitter melon, also known as bitter gourd, is, as you already understand, not the easiest vegetable. But in Southeast Asia they love it. Let's tell you why.

Useful properties of bitter melon (Bitter melon)

Special fans of the vegetable say that its main value is in the prevention and fight against malaria. Everything is used - seeds, leaves, pulp and skin.
Bitter melon also contains 32 active chemicals and a lot of iron. And in the relay race for usefulness, Bitter Melon wins the category:

• for beta-carotene content (bypasses broccoli)
• for calcium content (wins over spinach)
• due to its potassium content it leaves behind bananas.

Bitter melon, nostrils flaring with importance, polishes its victory with vitamins A, C, B1, B3, phosphorus and dietary fiber.

Adherents of Bitter melon have created a whole club where they quietly push it to foolish Europeans. The club is called the National Bitter Melon Council. They also recommend drinking bitter melon juice (necessarily diluted, melon juice can harm ulcers and gastritis sufferers), 50 ml per day, or in small portions, 5 ml each, and adding it to food (down with malaria!).
We won’t write about other beneficial qualities, but the list includes the prevention of HIV, cancer and other unpleasant diseases. We’d better tell you how to cook it.

We dissect and attack Bitter melon

In fact, bitter melon is no more difficult to deal with than eggplant. The method is the same - cut it into small pieces, sprinkle it with salt and give it a therapeutic rest in the fresh air for 10-20 minutes. Afterwards we wash and cook.

You can simply throw it in salt water, bring it to a boil, simmer for a minute, and then throw it in ice water. Cruel, but effective.

Bitter melon can be prepared as a side dish, combined with seasonings, curries and even coconut milk. Our perversion resulted in a recipe borrowed from a good Filipino girl. We modified it a little and got a tasty and new dish. They called him “Bitter melon is also a person.”

Bitter melon is also a person!

We go to a good Balinese store (or market) and buy:
- 200 grams of pork ribs
– 1 medium bitter melon
- a bunch of green beans
- 1 eggplant
– 1 shallot and clove of garlic
- pumpkin flowers (half a bunch)
- 2 red tomatoes
- small corns (5-6 pieces)
Also add parsley, fish sauce, butter and salted soy sauce to taste.

Easy to prepare:

• Cook the ribs, at this time cut the vegetables into cubes.
• Remove the meat from the bone and throw it into the frying pan, add the garlic.
• After frying, remove the meat and leave a third of the oil in the pan.
• Add tomatoes and onions, and a little later – pumpkin. Simmer for 10 minutes and invite the rest of the vegetables to the party. Add corn and pumpkin blossoms last (after 15 minutes). Season them with herbs and sauces.
• When the vegetables are soft, add the pork again. We simmer for another 5-7 minutes, and rejoice in our victory! It turns out not bad at all.

Bali does not have the best tomatoes, so for cooking it is better to take either cherry tomatoes or canned ones.

This is how we became friends with Bitter Melon. And now, when we meet her in stores, we see how she smiles at us with all her bumps and wrinkles. It's not that bad, considering how much useful it contains.

BITTER MELON

Probably, each of you managed to eat plenty of watermelons and melons, well, maybe someone didn’t get enough...
At one time I ate this vegetable in Uzbekistan, in the city of Chirchik, located some thirty kilometers from Tashkent...
Summer in Uzbekistan is quite hot and it happens that during the entire summer there is not a single rain, not even real clouds... It is clear that watermelons and melons ripen well in such a hot climate. The only thing that watermelons and melons need is water, an irrigation system... But water, an irrigation system was present everywhere, where watermelons and melons grew...
And I have never eaten sweeter watermelons and melons than in Uzbekistan! Usually melons appeared in great variety and abundance in the month of August... In August, melons were already sold cheaply and were available to any average-income resident. And what kind of melons I had to eat! Fragrant and juicy with white flesh.. And it was customary to say when the melon was very sweet: “Sweet as honey!”
But where can honey compete in terms of sweetness with a real Central Asian melon? A well-chosen melon was usually sweeter than honey! So, in any case, it seemed to me... But, sometimes, we came across bitter melons and watermelons! This was due to excess artificial chemicals, which some melon growers used to speed up growth... It turned out, sometimes. like this: half the watermelon is sweet, and the other half is bitter! I don’t even know how it was possible to feed a watermelon so many chemicals that even one watermelon had two different tastes!?
But, one day, I ate bitter melon! And I remembered this for the rest of my life! I was then nine or ten years old... And it happened on one of the hot August weekends... Two cousins ​​came to visit us... One was two years older than me, the second two years younger... Dad wasn't home at the time. It was afternoon... and my mother decided to treat everyone to melon... And so five people gathered at the table: my two cousins, my brother Shurik, me and my mother with a light melon a little smaller than average... Mom quickly cut most of the melon into long slices intended for eating.. Externally, the melon was like a melon, with soft pulp, even aromatic.. I wanted to take a bite and try it. And I took a bite. But the taste of the melon was not sweet at all, but bitter... I really wanted to stop eating it and loudly declare to everyone that the melon was bitter and should not be eaten... But at that very moment I heard some kind of enthusiastic praise for the melon.
“Oh, what a delicious melon, oh how juicy,” my mother said, somehow too cheerfully and overly excited.
I was so surprised by this praise, which was repeated several times by my mother, that I somehow did not dare to say that the melon was bitter, and looked with bewilderment at my mother and older cousin... My older sister Valya was not at all delighted with the taste of the melon expressed...
My younger relatives were also silent... And my mother herself continued to praise the taste of the melon: “Oh, what a melon, delicious, like honey,” my mother said loudly and constantly smiling.
When the process of eating this wonderful melon stopped, after each of us ate one, and some even two slices... and my mother removed the rest of the melon and the skins from the eaten melon slices from the table, Valya, my eldest, came up to me my sister, and when my mother was not around, asked me: “Was the melon bitter?” I immediately admitted: “Yes, the melon was bitter!” I said, so that my mother from the other room would not hear.. Then my brother admitted to me that the melon was bitter.
This is how it happens in life! I don’t know how it is in yours, and how many sweet melons have you had to eat? I had to eat a lot of sweet melons! But once, only once in my life, I ate a truly bitter melon! Yes, not alone, but with his sisters and brother!
But my mother kept praising her: “Ah, a miracle melon, juicy and sweet like honey, and even sweeter than honey!”
Was she pretending or did she get the sweet half of the melon? She was probably faking it after all! You can’t fool children... And if she was bitter to me, bitter to my sister, bitter to my brother, then how could she be sweet as honey and even more than honey to my mother? I don’t know that... Since then I have never come across such truly bitter melons.
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