My Tangent – Transcription Project - Bitter Melon – New Quilt Designs

Morning,

And as I take a quick break from my genealogy and ancestry search for ggg-grandfather James Smith in my Transcription Project, I have to tell you that I have been progressing at a good clip through the Records that I have on file. Maybe today I’ll find that clue. Maybe?

Well last night I tried something for the first time, Bitter Melon. I’ve seen this warty-looking cucumber type thing for a while at the Asian grocery store that I frequent. The store always seems to have a steady supply, usually sold in a package of three. I’ve been thinking for some time now that I should just try it… and so we did. The Okinawan stir-fry recipe – Gôya Camploo - was bitter melon, pork belly, tofu, carrot, soya sauce, egg, and bonito flakes and dashi powder. (Gôya is the word for bitter melon.)

Everywhere I had read, basically said the same thing, that bitter melon is bitter. Everyone who had written about it mentions how it becomes an acquired taste. The idea is to salt and soak the prepared melon in order to cut down the bitterness. Well I didn’t know what to expect and I really didn’t find it ultra-bitter, just sort of “eeayhn” bitter, a cross between a cucumber, a chayote or cho-cho, and a raw banana without the strong oily taste. It was sort of blasé. And now I’ve got to find more recipes.

But here’s the plus thing, it is supposed, that’s supposed with a lower case “s”, to be good for diabetes. And coincidentally, my blood sugar count this morning had dropped 18 points. Okay, okay, I know one meal a miracle cure doth not make… but this was weird, in a good sense. Check out the write up at Wikipedia. And there is a Gôya Man. I suppose if Irmo, South Carolina has the Okra Strut, Okinawa has Gôya Man.

The C&N quilt has been delivered and a companion quilt Brick Fantasy top has been completed. Two more series are now in the design stages, the Turkish Mosaics, and another based on the paintings of Gustav Klimt. Also I’m working on one to enhance the maple wall of an open stairwell.

And now back to my transcriptions.

Stay tuned, and enjoy,

Jim