Spine gourd

Spine gourd (Momordica dioica), also called teasel gourd, kakrol or kantola, is the small, soft-spined immature fruit of a perennial climbing vine grown across South and Southeast Asia. Egg-shaped and rarely longer than a plum, its bright-green skin is covered in dense, fleshy, hair-like spines that give the vegetable its name. A close cousin of the fiercely bitter karela, spine gourd is by contrast mild, gently vegetal and only faintly bitter — eaten green as a cooked vegetable in curries, fries and stir- fries, and prized in Bengali, Odia and South Indian kitchens for its tender flesh and novel spiny texture.