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I hope the image populated my gravatar b/c I am not on Facebook and can't post the image that way. Does anyone know what this is and how it tastes? I was gifted this half-melon (about 12 inches long, 6 inches diameter light green with markings similar but perpendicular to a water melon, inside is pale green) by a co-worker. She is from South India. Another co-worker from Beijing was familiar with it and a stir fry for it but neither one could supply a name that I can locate on line. It has an astringent smell and I haven't tasted it yet- kind of afraid after my experience with bitter melon recently.

Foodycat I think you may be right. The shape of the cylindrical bottle gourd is right and it IS the size of a liter bottle haha. The difference is this has a smooth variegated rind. One 'type' of bottle gourd is ash gourd but most photos of this don't look anything like mine. I think I can consider it a member of this family and cook accordingly.

Thanks Jane, for offering to post the photo- I sent one of the rind too.