Winter melon (Benincasa hispida), also called wax gourd, ash gourd, white gourd or tung kua, is a large oblong-to-round gourd of the cucumber family, ripening to a pale blue-green skin coated in a chalky white wax. Its watery, mild, faintly sweet white flesh has little flavour of its own and is prized in East and Southeast Asian cooking as a near-neutral vegetable for clear soups, braises, stir-fries and the translucent candied sweet winter-melon strips.