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[hagi]

It has been nearly two weeks upon my arrival in Vancouver, and I have not updated my journal since then! On the next day of my arrival in Vancouver, I could not resist from staying at home no matter how the weather and temperature were. I stepped into different neighbourhoods each day to re-discover my hometown and created many things each night to

Comments

[vorpal]

Do you know what those things are to the left of the banana flowers? I've recently started seeing them here in Toronto and am not sure, but would like to know!

[hagi]

I have no idea what kind of melon they are. Will you able to find me the name of them in Toronto? I am curious about them, too, as I have never seen them before.

[vorpal]

I wish I could... the only store I saw them at had them labeled only with Chinese characters and a price.

I did buy one and prepare it, and it was fine. Very mild taste, good consistency.

[hagi]

Will you able to take a picture of the Chinese characters of the melon that you want to know?

[vorpal]

That I can try to do! I'll see if I can track them down this week and if so, I'll take a snapshot for you!

[hagi]

Thank you! :)

[hagi]

I went to Ottawa's Chinatown today and I searched the type of squash that you are interested to know. I think this is the one that you are looking for: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagenaria_siceraria

If I am not mistaken, it is called Opo. This type of squash is usually used for pairing with other strong ingredients, particularly meat, for steam and soup items.

[vorpal]

If it helps at all, it didn't seem so much like a squash as it did more like a zucchini, in texture and internal structure with seeds and what not, but not so much in taste (it was nearly tasteless).

It's much lighter green and has almost prickly hairs on it, too.

[hagi]

LOL, Indeed, this mystery needs to be solved!!! I am determined!

From what I know, zucchini is a type of squash. It isn't grown in the size of a butternut squash before selling it. The Chinese vendors like to sell different sizes of squash to accent its flavour. If you are saying the squash or the thing that has light green colour with prickly hair, I think it is winter melon but in a smaller size. When zucchini is in smaller size, particularly when it still has flower, the pedicle or the stalk has prickly hair and is in lighter colour. I think the squash or the thing that you are looking for is in similar condition. When winter melon is in smaller size, the Chinese literally calls it as "hairy gourd". However, as it develops, the hair will disappear and a waxy surface will reveal. The Chinese literally calls it as "waxy gourd". But why does it call "winter" melon? I am not sure. I reckon it is commonly consume in winter due to its availability in the winter season.

[vorpal]

I had no idea that a zucchini is a squash :D. You learn something new every day!

And you have solved the mystery! It is indeed a hairy melon, as indicated by the pictures that turned up on a Google image search. This is exactly it:

[hagi]

You are very welcome! Yes, it is indeed a winter melon. In such a size, I usually use it for stir fry or steaming. If it is bigger (which is usually sold in slices), I usually use it for soup.

If you like Chinese cooking this much, please allow me to introduce you a series of video clips. It is from a cooking show produced in Taiwan by a chef who is specialized in Shanghaiese cuisine. She teaches viewers how to make noodles from scratch or other traditional techniques that I have never heard of. She simplifies the techniques for viewers to learn. Although the videos are in Chinese, I doubt you will have any problem just looking at the techniques. If you have any questions with the ingredients, please ask me. At the same time you have to know, she introduces rare ingredients once in a while that are not available in North America.http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%E6%9D%8E%E6%A2%85%E4%BB%99&

[vorpal]

This is fantastic! Thanks. I can't wait to sit down and check this out with more detail. My focus (as you probably guessed from ironchefseb) is mostly on Thai cooking, but I would very much like to branch out and experiment more with Chinese cuisine, too. I've picked up a few more traditional cookbooks (mostly Szechuan so far) and played around a bit, mostly with good results! I tried cooking ants climbing up a tree and despite the fact that the prepared dish was not initially appealing to me in appearance or smell, I ended up devouring it all and wishing for more.

Thanks for all your help. I'll be sure to run any weird ingredients that I'm not too sure about by you. I just love going to Chinatown and digging around and buying strange things that I've never used before, so here's another excuse to do it! (Not that I don't do that regularly already, but now I have reason to get even less familiar ingredients!)

[hagi]

Here is another website that I often watch: http://www.appleactionews.com/site/index.cfm?fuseaction=features.archiveList&channel_id=575603

[vorpal]

Oh... LOL... now I feel dumb :D. I actually *meant* to compare it to a cucumber instead of a zucchini, but now that I think of it, it was probably more like a zucchini. I just rarely eat zucchini, so it didn't come to mind for me when trying to describe it. (Well, apparently, it *did* come to mind, just not intentionally!)

[hagi]

Zucchini is rarely used in Asian cuisine after all it is originated from Italy, I believe. I love eating zucchini... it is a great for warm salad and pasta. I often grill it after coated with some olive oil and then lightly salted. If you want to try to cooperate zucchini into Asian cuisine, why don't you try to steam zucchini with minced beef or pork? Add a bit of oyster sauce, I think zucchini will taste good. :)

[vorpal]

So you've got me curious, if you don't mind me asking you: where did you get all your food knowledge