Bitter Melon

Last week George and my neighbor John took a trip up to Jungle Jim's with the express purpose to go and buy weird food.  "And did they succeed?" you ask?  I'll let you be the judge. 

They came home with 5 kinds of extremely bitter beer, burro bananas, stinky blue cheese and the bitter melon you see above.  When I saw the melon I was intrigued by its green, knobby body and when George cut it open I loved the pattern created by the seeds inside.  But I let its beauty fool me into tasting it and I can only describe it as incredibly hideous.  This melon activated every bitter taste bud on my tongue and I immediately had to drink some water to rid my mouth of the overwhelming bitterness.  Of course, George happily ate his and stir fried it for dinner.  I will never understand his affinity for the bitter.  As they say, "De gustibus non est disputandum!" - "There's no accounting for taste!"