Bitter gourd

Last Saturday Jack and I went to this Indian restaurant in Sunnyvale, which was highly recommended by my picky Indian colleague to be the best Indian buffet in town.

We were very happy with the choices of food, despite having to wait for 30 minutes for the buffet to open. Jack's favorite, to my surprise, was tandoori vegetables. It was similar to tandoori chicken but had marinated crunchy vegetables instead of chicken.

We came across this tiny strips of fried green vegetable in the tandoori, which we had never had anywhere else, but Jack liked the taste. I tasted it, and to me, it was bitter, and I didn't like it at all. I told him I thought it was fried bitter melon, but Jack didn't think it was possible, because he disliked any kind of melon, not to mention the bitter ones.

I smiled. Deep down, I knew how bitter melon tasted like, because it was one of my favorite exotic green vegetables! Deep fried, tandoori flavor or otherwise, I know how bitter melon taste like.

I told Jack: why don't you ask the server what it is.

Jack seemed to be as curious as I did, so he said OK. He went to where the dish was placed and asked his question.

When Jack came back, he said: "It was bitter gourd." I laughed with satisfaction. Then he continued: "The first waiter didn't know what it was, so we asked the waitress, and she said it was bitter gourd. Then the Chinese lady asked if it was bitter melon, and the waiter told her, 'no, it's bitter gourd.'"

How does the saying go? "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."