"Chuchu" or Bitter Melon in English!

When Matthew and I were in Brazil (in 2005) he ate bitter melon (or chuchu as we call it in Portuguese) for the first time in his life and he loved it! He had never eaten before nor seen it and we did not even know how to say "chuchu" in English.

I've always looked for "chuchu" here but never found it until last week at Safeway. I was surprised! It was a little different from the Brazilian "chuchu", ours has more of a pear shape and the bitter melon that I bought was round.

I bought 3 bitter melons and payed 10 dollars!! It was a shock to me because you can find bitter melon in Brazil anywhere and it's very cheap. Probably, with 10 dollars you could buy a whole plantation of bitter melon back there. But I thought I'd try it to see if it tasted the same. And, after all, Matthew and I both love it.

It was exactly the same taste, thank God, and we ate it as if it was the most delicious meal ever! I even gave some to Julia who also loved it. She would grab the spoon, the food and put everything inside her mouth including her fingers. She absolutely loved it!

So it was expensive but worthy it! I'm trying to find out how to grow bitter melon here, because I think it will be much cheaper and we can eat it more often. So, if anybody knows how to grow bitter melon, please, tell me and I'll try.