Unless you grew up eating it, fu gwa (also known as bitter melon, bitter gourd, kerala or balsam pear) can be quite unpalatable. It's bitter, as the name would indicate, and the wrinkled, warty skin is unappealing. When is it in season? It's available year-round, but is considered best from spring through early autumn. Where is it eaten? It's popular in Chinese, Indian and some Southeast Asian cuisines. It's grown in other countries but more for the plant's ornamental value than as a food. Varieties: the types most often found in local markets are pale to dark green with wrinkled skin, and are either short and stubby or long and thin. There are also miniature varieties, white bitter melon and some that have spikes and/or bumps rather than wrinkles. How to choose: they should be firm with no soft or discoloured spots. Pale green or yellow-green melons are milder than the darker green ones. What else? Bitter melons are filled with inedible seeds and pith, which ranges from creamy white to pale green to light orangy-pink. These need to be removed before cooking the melon. Salting the vegetable reduces its bitterness. After scraping out the seeds and pith, sprinkle the melon heavily with salt, leave for about 15 minutes then rinse with cool water. You can also blanch the melon in salted water to remove some of the bitterness. Cooking it until it's quite soft (rather than al dente) is another way to make the melon more mild, and its strong flavour can be tempered by combining it with other assertive ingredients such as black beans, onions and garlic. Bitter melon is considered a 'cooling' vegetable, which makes it good to eat during summer. How to prepare: it can be simmered with pork spare-ribs to make soup (the flavour is surprisingly mild), pureed, mixed with eggs and then steamed to make a lovely, pale green, subtly flavoured custard, and stir-fried with black beans and pork or beef. For a simple, homey dish, the vegetable can be sliced, salted and cooked with onions, tomatoes and scrambled eggs, which is an unlikely sounding combination that works well. Bitter melon is delicious when stuffed with minced pork or fish paste (see recipes, left). For a refreshing salad, remove the seeds and pith, cut the melon into thick slices and steam until soft. Drizzle with soy sauce and sesame oil and refrigerate to allow the flavours to blend. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds before serving.