This is vine growing like a weed in my back yard.

[HonoluluGirl]

This is vine growing like a weed in my back yard. What is it? Can I eat it?

[imafan26]

That is the dreaded wild bitter melon. The birds will bring the seeds. It is edible. The leaves and fruit when it is green. Like it's name it is bitter. It is used a lot in Filipino dishes. I call it an annoying weed in my yard. I feed it to my worms.

You can make pinatbet with it. The secret is to add the bitter melon in last and do not stir just shake the pot, you do not want to bruise or over cook, it will make it even more bitter. Only make enough for one meal, the vegetables should be on the crisp side and they get soggy if you keep cooking it.

Bitter melon has some medicinal uses. It lowers blood sugar. It is a common vegetable in Asian cuisines.
I like the long bitter melon better, it is less bitter and I like it stuffed with pork and steamed Chinese style.

Most of these are Filipino recipes so a few facts
Bitter melon fruit in Illocano are called ampalaya, the leaves are paria. Only young leaves are used. Old ones are tough and even more bitter. Discard the stems. Leaves and fruit are added at the end of cooking and no stirring is done to prevent bruising and over cooking otherwise it is even more bitter.
Bagoong or Patis are fish paste and fish sauce. Stinky stuff but tastes good. You can always substitute salt.
sayote = chayote, sili leaves are the young leaves of the chili pepper plant. They are not really hot but you will be able to tell they are a pepper. Marunguray fruit or leaves are from the moringa oleifera or drumstick tree.

It can be an ingredient in dinengdeng but I could not find a recipe that uses it. Essentially it is a Filipino vegetable soup often the same ingredients are used in a fish stew.

Asians like bitter foods in their diet. It is an acquired taste, I do not like bitter or sour. They use a lot of tamarind as a basis for a sour soup called Sinigang. fish paste and fish sauce is very stinky but has a lot of flavor and it very salty and often is the source of the salt in the recipes.

https://panlasangpinoy.com/2009/09/09/fi ... og-recipe/
https://sutapa.com/bitter-melon/bittermelon.html
https://kaukautime.blogspot.com/2011/04/ ... ya-in.html

[HonoluluGirl]

Thanks Imafan. I can handle bitter melon when it's not too bitter, and I love pinakbet and the Chinese stuffed bittermelon. Sounds like this wild one will be too bitter for me.

[imafan26]

I can use the leaves of the wild one. The leaves are less bitter than the fruit. Just need to pick only the young ones. Mostly it just covers everything. The bulbuls will eat the seeds and spread it.

[applestar]

Wow it looks very exotic from where I am!
Too bad it's not really yummy -- it looks like it should be.

[imafan26]

Some people actually like this one better because of the bitterness. The long one is milder.

[rainbowgardener]

ahhh, Hawaii!! What a beautiful thing to have pop up like a weed!