Bitter Melon Dishes, Where?

LTH,
I have the pleasure of enjoying a lunch with the National Bitter Melon Council while they are in town for University of Chicago's "Feast: Radical Hospitality on Contemporary Art" symposium.
Thing is- I've probably only eaten bitter melon once and it was certainly not in Chicago. Does anyone know of some great bitter melon dishes in town or menus that feature the fruit in multiple iterations?
Thanks!
Jefe

I recently had an awesome soup at Nha Hang with some kind of meat stuffed bitter melon. I don't remember the name, but it is worth seeking out.

It also shows up in a lot of Thai clear soups. My wife (Thai) can't get enough of it. I've also seen it stuffed with the ground meat, as laikom noted above. Finally, the south lndian pure veg joint l sometimes hit up for lunch occasionally uses a long, thin variety in their thalis, but to be honest it is the only thing they serve up that l really do not enjoy eating.

If your group ends up checking out places on Devon, then try the "juice guy" at Fresh Farms. He used a good amount of raw bitter melon, and somehow it didn't make me want to gag (my only other experience was cooking it at home in south indian food).

As a huge fan of Nha Hang, I'll have to check out their stuffed version.

Rosded Thai occasionally uses bitter melon, but usually only for its Thai customers . . . for instance, the larb dish pictured in this post by Ronnie S is typically made with bitter melon. But I'm sure that if you asked Tom at Rosded, he'd be more than happy to not only prepare that larb dish for you with bitter melon, but perhaps design a menu (or part of a menu) around bitter melon a la Iron Chef.

Ghareeb Nawaz has a couple, though I don't know how they are.

Browsing the menu at Sticky Rice the other night I noticed a couple of bitter melon dishes.

You can get bittermelon dishes at most Cantonese restaurants. I've had bittermelon dishes at Silver Seafood, Sun Wah, and Furama.

Also this place looks like it wouldn't be good, or maybe some generic chinese food, but their bitter melon is really solid. If you're around chinatown I highly recommend it for bitter melon. They have a bittermelon chicken with blackbean that I really love. Also so cheap!

Tasty Place
2306 S Wentworth Ave
(at 23rd St)
Chicago, IL 60616

Just wanted to report back here and say thanks for the suggestions. In the end bitter melon dishes were procured from Ghareeb Nawaz and Sun Wah (the dishes were not ordered by me, but by the National Bitter Melon Council). Apparently there are a wide variety of bitter melons and each restaurant featured their own breed. There were four dishes from Sun Wah, three of which were essentially the same, stir fried bitter melon each with a different protein- fish, beef, and chicken. These were the least interesting dishes on the table- as plain as they sound. Though chock full of that bitter melon- bitter and pungent, Sun Wah used the longer, lighter green, and smoother skinned variety. Stir fried it maintained a vegetal crunch that really elevated its presence in these dishes. The fourth dish from Sun Wah was considerably more complex, roasted joints of pork in a deeper, soy intense sauce that had a bit of a smoky thing going on. The melon was cooked a bit softer here and melded better with the dish.

I quite enjoyed the dishes from Ghareeb Nawaz which employed a smaller, darker, warty looking bitter melon. We had three dishes, one with slow cooked mutton, another with a ground beef mixture, and the third vegetarian (which I didn't try since the vegetarian 1/3 of the group could only eat this one dish). The masala was essentially the same in both curries, which were quite fiery, and cooked down into a stewy consistency. The bitter melon here fused with the over all flavor profile of the dishes the best of the day's offerings. Of note is that this variety of bitter melon is full of seeds, which Ghareeb did not bother to remove and was my one nit with the dishes, since their kernels were quite tough and not exactly edible.

Bitter melon has a really divisive flavor and the twelve or so of the diners that day had a variety of reactions. I quite liked it, particularly cooked down a bit a la Ghareeb Nazwaz and the slower cooked Sun Wah dish. In fact, I stuffed myself pretty well- I am a fan of the bitter. Some folks could hardly choke down a forkful. The National Bitter Melon Council is an interesting project and for me, perhaps the primary question raised by showcasing this vegetable is individual preference, which I have a hunch might be equally biochemical as it is subjective. Why does one tongue favor certain flavors over another? I find that bitter flavors are stimulating while another may find them repulsive. Though I have an aversion to sweet foods. Do our taste buds inform our bodies as to what nutrients they may require? Or is it simply a matter of familiarity and cultural bias- bitterness is probably the most under appreciated flavor in the American diet. Food for thought.

http://bittermelon.org/

Jefe wrote:I quite enjoyed the dishes from Ghareeb Nawaz which employed a smaller, darker, warty looking bitter melon.

I'd certainly expect the kerela masala at Ghareeb Nawaz would get the National Bitter Melon Council seal of approval. Here's a side-by-side of Indian kerela and Chinese ku gua at a shop on Devon.



Have you tried bitter melon tea? I forgot about this bag I bought at one of Fort Wayne's fine Burmese markets. Haven't tried it yet but hope to open it soon.

Jefe wrote:The National Bitter Melon Council is an interesting project and for me, perhaps the primary question raised by showcasing this vegetable is individual preference, which I have a hunch might be equally biochemical as it is subjective. Why does one tongue favor certain flavors over another? I find that bitter flavors are stimulating while another may find them repulsive. Though I have an aversion to sweet foods. Do our taste buds inform our bodies as to what nutrients they may require? Or is it simply a matter of familiarity and cultural bias- bitterness is probably the most under appreciated flavor in the American diet. Food for thought.

There's little question that bitter (and other) taste perception has a strong physiological basis but that "subjective" factors also play a large role. It's an active area of research that has accelerated since the identification of the mammalian taste receptor family. It's clear that not everyone has the same array of taste receptors and that can result in differences in taste perception. Correlation of genetic variation of people's taste receptors with their food preferences has already yielded interesting results but it's a complex problem. Some definitive answers ought to emerge eventually however. Here's a fairly recent review on Genetics of Taste and Smell that directly addresses some the questions you raise. You could read for weeks on this topic (using PubMed is an excellent way to search the technical peer-reviewed literature, though some of the articles might be a challenge to decipher).

WHY DO HUMANS eat bitter foods? Our bodies crave sugar, salt, fat, protein — all forms of replenishment or efficient providers of caloric energy. When something tastes bad, we’re meant to take it as a warning sign: danger, don’t eat this, it could kill you.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/22/t-ma ... .html?_r=0