The cucamelon (Melothria scabra) is a grape-sized fruit of a slender vine in the gourd family, looking like a miniature watermelon barely the size of a thumbnail but tasting like a crisp cucumber finished with a squeeze of lime. Native to Mexico and Central America — where it has been eaten since long before European contact — it is enjoyed raw as a crunchy, tart snack, tossed whole into salads, skewered as a cocktail garnish or brined into tiny pickles, and has become a fashionable novelty crudité prized as much for its charm as for its flavour.