Chinese bitter melon

Chinese bitter melon (Momordica charantia), also called Chinese bitter gourd, kugua or fu gua, is the long, slender, pale jade-green form of the bitter gourd — smoother and more gently ridged than the knobbly Indian karela, and noticeably milder in its bitterness. Eaten green and immature as a vegetable, it is prized across Cantonese and southern Chinese cooking, where its cool, cleansing bitter edge is welcomed rather than tamed away, and it is stir-fried with egg and black bean, stuffed, or simmered in cooling summer soups.