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‘Nourishing and polarising’: Thanh Truong’s recipes for bitter melon | Food | The Guardian

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Children of Vietnamese parents might have strong feelings about the bumpy green gourd, but fruiterer Thanh Truong AKA Fruit Nerd sings its praises M y favourite dish cooked by my mum is stuffed bitter melon soup. It’s a wholesome home-style dish that you won’t find in Vietnamese restaurants. The dish itself is meaningful, nourishing and polarising. Why polarising? Unless cooked well, the unsurprising bitter flavours can put many children off, and most kids grow up disliking it, especially if their parents enjoy the bitter flavours. There is even a meme among the Vietnamese community about growing up being forced to eat bitter melon, with some hating it and others loving it. It takes skill to cook it well so the flavours are balanced – the bitter flavours in Mum’s bitter melon soup are balanced with rice and pork, and served with an abundance of fresh herbs. In the western world, bitter melon is still seen as a vegetable oddity, an “exotic vegetable” not as readily accepted as bok choy.

Bitter melon: a polarising vegetable that can be nourishing and delicious if cooked the right way. Photograph: Mark Roper/Plum View image in fullscreen Bitter melon: a polarising vegetable that can be nourishing and delicious if cooked the right way. Photograph: Mark Roper/Plum Food ‘Nourishing and polarising’: Thanh Truong’s recipes for bitter melon Children of Vietnamese parents might have strong feelings about the bumpy green gourd, but fruiterer Thanh Truong AKA Fruit Nerd sings its praises Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email Thanh Truong Wed 20 Sep 2023 11.00 EDT Last modified on

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