Sifting the Inner Belt 篩羅內環 Tamizando el Cinturón Interno

Bitter Melon Week is finally here!

Bitter Melon week is upon us!  From July 22-30,  visit an extensive list of participating restaurants in the South End to taste an array of exciting dishes that feature Bitter Melon.

If you are able to eat at each establishment or no, you can still drop in and pick up a FREE recipe card at each restaurant.  Then, when you have collected all 14, return to the Mills Gallery at the Boston Center for the Arts to assemble your very own Bitter Melon Recipe Book!   
 
Participating Restaurants        

B&G Oysters, Ltd: 550 Tremont Street
Bostonian Market: 570 Tremont Street
Botucatu: 57 W. Dedham Street
Christopher's Cafe: 59 E. Springfield Street
The Corner Cafe: 502 Massachusetts Avenue
Equator: 1721 Washington Street
Hamersley's Bistro: 553 Tremont Street
House of Siam: 542 Columbus Avenue
Kosmos Market: 683 Tremont Street
Nicole's Pizza: 639 Tremont Street
Perdix: 560 Tremont Street
Pho Republique: 1415 Washington Street
Polka Dog Bakery: 256 Shawmut Avenue
The Red Fez: 1222 Washington Street

Visit the Mills Gallery at the Boston Center for the Arts (539 Tremont Street) for a map of Bitter Melon Week restaurants and recipe book assembly materials.

CONTRIBUTE YOUR EXPERIENCES ONLINE!   We'd love to hear what you think about all of these different Bitter Melon dishes.   Please feel free to write comments here.    You can also contact the National Bitter Melon Council directly at [email protected].

Thank you for participating!  Enjoy the celebration and the yummy Bitter Melon goodies!

Bitter Melon in the News

Why do things always seem to catch on more quickly on the west coast?   

According to LA Times writers Charles Perry and Linda Burum, Bitter Melon is a new, hot, not to miss food fad at several Los Angeles dim sum cafes.   Read on!
....
Don't miss these Chinese nibbles

Navigating dim sum menus at restaurants without carts can seem tricky for those accustomed to simply pointing to what looks good and continuing to order and eat until satisfied. If there is a menu, is it best to order in flights? Or should you order everything at once but count on the restaurant to handle the pacing? Though it's tempting to order all at once (these places can be so frantically busy), if you do, you risk having all the dishes appear at the same time, in which case they'll get cold. Instead, order maybe a third of what you want, then summon the waiter when you're almost ready for more. Save the sweets for last.

Here are some new-style dim sum not to miss:

Bitter melon ball. The faintly bitter green wrapper contrasts with a sweet sesame filling. Beguiling, sophisticated and even faintly addictive. Sea Harbour Seafood, $3.20.

Hollow stem vegetables (water spinach). On their own, these earthy-tasting greens are good, but dipped in the silky fermented bean curd sauce that accompanies them, they're outstanding. New Concept, $4.98.

Scallops and shrimp in spinach pastry. A delicate seafood shiu mai with a bright green wrapper and a topping of shark's fin and crunchy masago (capelin) roe. A gorgeous symphony of textures. New Concept, $3.98.

Shrimp balls in spring roll pastry. The seafood is rolled in strips of paper-thin pastry, which fry up as crisp "hair." The texture is lovely. Ocean Star, $2.90.

Three-layer squares. A light, refined dessert of orange-strawberry gelatin dotted with tart wolfberries and layered with coconut. Sea Harbour, $1.98.

Almond-crusted taro balls. A luscious, creamy lotus seed filling flows out of a baked taro pastry when you bite into it; it's all covered in toasted almond slices. Ocean Star, $2.90.

Tofu custard topped with dried scallops. Mounds of tofu are so luxuriously soft, it's hard to pick this up with chopsticks. Contrasted with the intensely flavored dried scallop on top, it's spectacular. 888 Seafood, $2.80.

...

Excerpt from the article "Real Fireworks,"  January 26, 2005.   To read the entire article,  go to:
http://www.latimes.com/features/printedition/food/la-fo-dimsum26jan26,1,6167620.story?page=1&coll=la-headlines-pe-food

NATIONAL BITTER MELON COUNCIL

National Bitter Melon Council (www.bittermelon.org) explores the idea of participation in social structure as both a performance practice and research by creating a typical agricultural product promoting entity, e.g. the National Dairy Council, in an unlikely setting and for a unlikely fruit, i.e. Bitter Melon. This is the first entity ever created for and about Bitter Melon, and the Council is created virtually, ostensibly, to increase the conceptual and actual use of Bitter Melon (Momordica charantia) in the U.S.

Despite its origins in tropical areas, including parts of the Amazon, east Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean, this fruit/object (looks like a large cucumber with bumps and with bitter flavor) is grown in great quantity in the South End by mostly BSCG Asian gardeners. It is cultivated throughout many parts of Asia and Latin America as a food and as medicine.

As much as this project is about investigating the existing model of agricultural product councils without contempt, it is an abstract use of an object as a sign and signifier for critical dialogues. The Council’s ultimate goal is the promotion of the concept of this unfamiliar object that functions and acts as a spark – a seed – for inspiration, for conversation, and for investigation. The two significant activities of the Council in its first year will include, Bitter Melon Event and Taste-Testing BitterSweet Event.   

Bitter Melon Week

What is Bitter Melon Week?

Bitter Melon Week, from July 22 – 30, 2005, invites all the restaurants and food businesses in the South End neighborhood to participate by creating and serving a dish using the featured, locally-grown vegetable – Bitter Melon.  Bitter Melon Week is a performance art and community-building event that engages South End residents and visitors in culinary contemplation of the community’s cultural development by eating in the area’s numerous restaurants.  During Bitter Melon Week, restauranteaurs and community members alike will go to each participating restaurant, try the dish, collect its recipe card, and go to the exhibition space at the Mills Gallery to assemble the collected cards into a book. 

Bitter Melon Week, sponsored by the National Bitter Melon Council, is part of the broader public art project Sifting the Inner Belt.  Developed by a group of artists, activists and community members, Sifting aims to closely observe and examine, i.e. “to sift,” the South End neighborhood with an emphasis on creating emotional, conceptual and physical bridges between the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) and the Berkeley Street Community Garden (BSCG).  Sifting the Inner Belt is supported and sponsored by local neighborhood residents, the LEF Foundation, and the Boston Center for the Arts. 


Why Bitter? Why Bitter Melon?

Bitter Melon Week explores the idea of community and how community can be created through difference and foreignness.  Bitter Melon (Momordica charantia), also known as balsam pear, balsamina (Spanish), ku gua or foo gwa (Chinese), and assorossie (French), is a truly unique and bitter ingredient that is not yet well known in the United States.  It is a curious and interesting vegetable that deserves creative attention.

Bitter compounds evolved in plants as a mechanism to deter consumption by animals.  Humans are the only mammals to have developed a palate or taste for bitterness.  Bitterness defines our humanity.

Although grown in large quantitities in the South End, Bitter Melon is likely to be unfamiliar to most, if not all of the restaurants in the South End.  Inviting every eating establishment (and by every, we really DO mean every single one!) to incorporate Bitter Melon into their cuisine, this universally new flavor will instigate a moment of unity across local cultures and cuisines.  Unity through bitterness! 

Incorporating dishes using Bitter Melon will be a novel experience for everyone – chefs, restaurant staff, and restaurant patrons alike.  The process of creating a new dish with Bitter Melon, and serving it to guests, will be a mechanism for the entire community to come together through one shared experience – that of difference.  In this way, Bitter Melon highlights this similarity and establishes a basis for community.  Please see the “Bitter Melon Fact Sheet” to learn more about Bitter Melon.

Why Bitter Melon Week?

Bitter Melon Week is not a competition to find out who can make the best Bitter Melon dish.  It is a social, community-building collaboration manifested through participatory acts by all the individuals who visit restaurants and food businesses in South End.  We are thrilled to be creating this event and are seeking as broad involvement as possible among the restaurants and food businesses in the South End.  We want to involve the “destination dining” restaurants around the BCA as well as the neighborhood pizza joints scattered throughout the South End; we want the Dominican and Puerto Rican restaurants to join us as well as the various bakeries and cafes.

Not only does Bitter Melon Week provide a week for the community to taste the flavors created by South End restaurants, but the event re-defines the community artistically and metaphorically.  One cannot speak about the South End without talking about the fascinating culture of food businesses, and this project observes and celebrates the neighborhood from a variety of perspectives.  As a food festival, Bitter Melon Week will support all participating local businesses.  As a public art event, these businesses are also contributing creative partners! 

Bitter Melon Week is a stimulating opportunity for restaurants to participate in creating a performance art event simply be doing what you do best - creating and serving delicious and satisfying food.  Bitter Melon Week will draw additional restaurant patrons to neighborhood restaurants through the marketing effort of the organizers which will promote participating restaurants in media and outreach materials, including media sponsorship by the Weekly Dig and other press recognition.

We hope you’ll join us!

We believe in the accumulation of simple acts and gestures that create a sense of community.  The entire culinary experience is imbued with cultural significance.  As we all know, food and dining can bring people together within and across cultures and create a sense of community and belonging.  New paradigm public art, as Lucy Lippard – a contemporary art and cultural critic – writes, is about “laying out the ingredients but still looking for the recipe.”  We believe that the community members in and around the Berkeley Street Community Garden, the Boston Center for the Arts, and the South End will create a variety of recipes in order to find the ways to taste the real, rich, and rewarding flavors of the community itself.  Our intervention – Bitter Melon Week – will lay out the evidence and materials of our work for people in the neighborhood to weave into one thread.

An official greeting from the NBMC

A hearty hello to all from the newest addition to the National Bitter Melon Council!

I am honored to join the NBMC team as Director of Public Relations for this unique and striking gourd!  It has certainly been an exciting challenge to bring a new public face to this globally utilized and locally underappreciated culinary item. 

Some fruits and vegetables can literally sell themselves:  cherubic twin cherries, shiny and red and a commonly known co-star to historic George Washington;  carrots that can be baby and also bright long and lean and are good for the eyes; apples, a classic... need I say more? Why, even the mysteriously cross-bred pluot has a tangy-fresh sweetness that overshadows the question marks raised by its name.   Bitter Melon lacks these media-savvy characteristics that reserve its place on shopping lists and at dinner tables.  It's exterior is warty and wrinkled.  It is neither decidedly long or large nor cute round and squat.   When mature it is bitter, at youth still bitterer.  What could one really do with a vegetable whose name so bluntly betrays its shockingly dominant flavor -- bitterness.

No make-overs, no airbrushing, no GMO flavor modifiers - if this gourd is to jump on the scene, it's got to get there by being its natural self.  And I'm here to pave the way; this melon is ready to strut its bitter stuff!

I must admit,  I was not always a proponent of Bitter Melon.    I first tried it 2 years ago at a Malaysian restaurant on Grand and Bowery.    I had ordered a seafood and curry stew and there was no mention of Peria Katak (Malay for Bitter Melon) on the menu.  It was sliced and stuffed with fish, brushed in egg and fried.   I took a bite expecting the mildness of zucchini or the sweet/sour of green pepper.   But when I tasted Bitter Melon, my eyes shot open and I released a "mmph-ug!"  I couldn't bring myself to swollow! I discretely spit the piece into a cloth napkin and put the rest of the morsel on a side plate.    Embarrassed, I hid the napkin in my bag so the server would not find the evidence of my poor table manners.   

My mind has warmed up more speedily than my tastebuds to Bitter Melon since that first bite in NYC.   I'm intrigued by its health benefits, cultural value, and strangely attractive exterior.   The flavor however...   

So many countries and cultures appreciate this zany gourd!    If its bitterness is not prohibitive elsewhere, why should it be here?    Regardless (or perhaps because of) my position at the NBMC, I am determined to expand my own palette to incorporate the flavor nuances of Bitter Melon.   My quest is thus: to eat Bitter Melon daily until the launch of the NMBC's largest programming endeavor to date: Bitter Melon Week.  I've been on the wagon for three days;  I have sauteed it with onion and egg, diced it as a salad sprinkling, and put raw slices on a roast beef sandwich.   The bitter flavor and crunchy green is increasingly familiar but I couldn't say it's welcomed just yet.  I'll be documenting the experience daily and will share quips, recipes and discoveries online as my tastebuds adjust.   Keep tuning in for updates!

Glad to be on board with this wonderful gourd!

Andi Sutton
Director of Public Relations
National Bitter Melon Council

Research and findings...

With so many amazing Bitter Melon inspired interactions and interventions, I hardly know where to begin!

Some vignettes...

While gathering support for Bitter Melon Week, I stopped into a Thai restaurant on Washington Street.   The manager and I sat down to chat about the institution's participation in the event.   When hearing about our focus on Bitter Melon, she laughed.   "My mother and grandmother make Bitter Melon all the time!   I used to HATE it!"  She told me about how her grandmother in Thailand has a special way that she prepares the vegetable.  Her care and cooking of the gourd are attentive enough to whisk the bitterness away!   She is going to explore recipe possibilities and see if that grandmotherly touch can be repeated. 
- - -
Sipping tea in a corner teashop on Shawmut Avenue.   The chill of the late spring rain evaporated in the shop's warm inviting decor.   Entering only for a quick warm beverage and respite from the rain, I ended up whiling away the hours talking about China, cultural displacement, language, and Bitter Melons.    As it turns out, this teashop already serves Bitter Melon on the menu once and awhile.   How lovely to find such an easy advocate.   The bartender shared with me a unique herbal tea from the highlands that also carried a strong forward flavor of bitterness.  Though, if I were to compare it to Bitter Melon, I’d say this one was more round in its tonality.   Musty sweet to the tongue at first and then the rising of strong quinine/dandelion notes.   Bitter Melon is a nice complement, though the more I eat it, the more I discover its more angular flavor qualities.    Ku Gua.   The bartender shared with me a fun Bitter Melon quip: in China, people with pocked skin are said to look like a Ku Gua!
- - -

In my bitter melon research, I found there to be an American alt/folk rock group from North Carolina called Bitter Melon Farm.   I haven't asked if they have every tried it.  More to come!

- - -

Quote from Gordon Hamersley upon signing on to the Bitter Melon Restaurant Network:  "I'm into eclectic stuff, but this takes the cake!

- - -

With that, I wish everyone a day filled with magic and wonder and growing things.
_____________________________
The National Bitter Melon Council
"Better Living through Bitter Melon."

Contemplaciones Inspiradas del Camino del Melon Bitter

Ayer, me fui caminando por el South End, buscando restaurantes para compartir en nuestra festival del Melon Bitter.   Hacia sol, y me senti que estaba paseando en la compania de suerte.   

Entre en un restaurante Peruano.  No habia nadie alli adentro sino el dueno y su esposa.   Di a ellos "esta el dueno aqui?"   Me respusto "Si,  soy yo.  Que quiere ud."  Pero al punto de que empece a hablar del festival del Melon Bitter, me dijo el senor: "desculpa,  pero no hablo inles muy bien."   "Pues, hablamos en espanol entonces!"  yo le respuste.   Empezemos a charlar y  al fin, el me entendia y decia que queria compartir en la Semana del Melon Bitter.   

Me senti tan emocionada de poder compartir en un idioma que tenemos en comun.   Para un festival dedicada a unir las comunidades variadas alli en el South End y en Boston,  senti en ese momento que estamos acercando a ese sueno.    Pues,  yo nunca habia estado en esa restaurante Peruano (se llama Botucatu.)   Ahora, como le conozco a los duenos (tienen muy buen energia)  tengo ganas de volver y apollar el negocio con mas de solo Melones Bitter.   Voy descubriendo la importancia de apollar negocios independientes  - con dinero, con palabras, con salutaciones y conversaciones. 

Al otro lado,  me fui a una restaurante que tiene duenos Turcos.  Trate de communicarme con ellos pero teniamos el pared entre nosotros dos - ellos tenia dificultades en hablar en ingles, y yo no sabia nada de su idioma.  Mas que nada, yo queria construir un fondo de sentimiento que les podria a los duenos a sentir en calma conmigo y con los ideas.    Pero, en mi traje de negocios, con los papeles formales que describe el Melon Bitter y la Semana del Melon Bitter -- con una tema de arte, comida, verduras y desarollamiento de la comunidad (una combinacion rara y inesperado) todo parecia extrana y intimidada.  Se pierde el subtexto de divertido y juego sin las palabras de expresarlo.

Yo parecia el displacemiento de la situacion.   Se pude ver en la cara del dueno las palabras que queria decirme - los frases que van rapidamente en el lengua madre.   Pero no tenia las palabras en ingles para decirme si o no, vete a la calle o explicame mas.   Sin querer, yo estaba agressivo en mi manera de ser, hasta que el no pudia confiar en mi.   Sin el significacion completo de mis palabras, el tenia que estar defensivo.  Quien sabe, yo hubiera hecho un 'con' o hubiera sido un representiva de la oficina de inmigracion que queria inspectar los papeles de los trabajadores.    Una de los descubrimientos del ambiente de miendo que existe para los inmigrantes durante ese epoca guerrista y suspechoso en los EEUU. 

Entonces, digo a todo el mundo: "Vayate a los negocios independientes de su barrio!   Apollatelos! Tratate de charlar y compartir en cualquier manera que puede!  Da brillanza, interez, y diversidad a su communidad."

Andi Sutton
Directora de Relaciones Publicos
El Concilio Nacional del Melon Bitter
"Vive mejor con el Melon Bitter"

Springtime Sesame Salad

The Bitter Melon bandwagon is gathering steam as local support for the gourd increases!    I've been shopping it around, sharing bites and offering taste tests to local chefs and foodies.  The sampling has spurned exciting conversations about its many flavor nuances.   Adjectives that have come up in these interactions:   "floral", "clean", "fresh", "...interesting...", and even "mmm! That’s good!"   Its flavor has been compared to dandelion greens.  What it lacks in bouquet, Bitter Melon makes up for in finish.  The bitter bite cleans the palette, a quality that makes it a great salad complement to rich, heavy dishes.

I brought one to a chef at Central Kitchen in Cambridge, MA.  He had never tried it and was intrigued by my enthusiastic ruminations of its different flavor qualities and health benefits.  He asked for a melon to experiment with and whipped something up for that evening's staff meal.  The salad was received quite well by the unsuspecting group.    It was served as a complement to southern fried chicken, mustard mashed potatoes, and gravy.   I was told that the bowl was nearly empty by the time the was cleared!

Here's the recipe.  It is definitely one to try at home! 

Chef Jimmy Bigtime's Bitter Melon Salad

Vegs:
1 Bitter Melon (semi-mature), cored and grated
1 Carrot, grated
1 Bunch scallions, sliced

Sesame Vinaigrette:
1 1/2 T Sesame Oil
1 1/2 T Olive Oil
2 t Soy Sauce
Juice of 2 limes
1 T Ginger Vinegar (can substitute 1 t chopped Ginger)
1 t chili flakes

Toss veggies in vinaigrette and serve chilled.

Confessions of a budding Bitter Melon enthusiast

Friends of Bitter Melon, I have a sad, sorry confession to make. In my quest
to coerce my untrained tastebuds to love the gourd as much as I know that I
could and should, I’ve been dutifully incorporating it into my daily cuisine
routine. Unfortunately a busy life has left me to a rather monotonous eating
regime when it comes to utilizing this bitter green gourd: salads, salads, and
salads. Well, and one sandwich.

I've been told by experienced melon eaters that raw is not the way to go for
first-timers. I have to agree. For all of you Bitter Melon newbies, I suggest
blanching, sautéing, or spicing and baking this vegetable before eating. I
myself plan on trying the same. Otherwise, it has a rather loud presence when
consumed un-cooked.

The flavor was blending in quite nicely with the salads I prepared for the first
few days of the experiment. Lettuce, kale, cabbage, raisins, walnuts, Bitter
Melon, orange pepper, and a salad dressing of balsamic, soy sauce, olive oil
and tahini. The richness of the tahini and sweetness of the raisins cut the
bitter Bitter Melon. In fact, I appreciated the zip here and there when I
found pieces mixed in with the salad bites. Today, however, the salad fixing
choices were more reserved: lettuce, Bitter Melon, and orange pepper to add a
little sweet tang. I chose only olive oil, salt, pepper, adobo seasoning and a
splash of balsamic to dress. Something about the combination accentuated the
bitterness of Bitter Melon. I spiked several pieces with my fork to begin the
meal but by the end was fishing through the last bitter cubes for pieces of
lettuce and pepper. I ended up quitting while I was ahead -- for the first
time since the Malaysian restaurant fiasco I tossed out the remaining bitter
melon at the bottom of the salad bowl. Hating to waste food like that, I vow
not to do it again. Maybe it would do well to marinate in Tupperware overnight
anyway.

Regardless of my aforementioned moment of weakness, I have a fun Bitter Melon
story that I'd like to share:

I returned home last week after touring the South End in search of
establishments to join the Bitter Melon Week network, melons in tow. My
roommate was home. He and his girlfriend have been intrigued by this new
veggie-obsession-profession of mine and were curious to take a taste. I
sliced a section from one I was cutting up for dinner. Both gave it a try
(good for them and their adventurous palettes!) and chewed up an entire raw
section. What's more, my roommate recognized the flavor! He let out a yelp
and said, "I thought that's what it was!" As it turns out, his parents (both
South Indian) are big fans. They call it "Pavaka" (Tamil for Bitter Melon.)
His mother would cook it when he was a kid. Needless to say he didn't enjoy it
then and doesn't to this day. Who could have known I'm only two-degrees from
Bitter Melon!

How many degrees from Bitter Melon are you? I welcome your comments and
contributions!

Andi Sutton
Director of Public Relations
National Bitter Melon Council
"Better Living Through Bitter Melon"
[email protected]

GARDENING: Rooted in foreign lands

By Carol Stocker, Globe Staff  |  April 7, 2005

You can travel in your backyard by planting an international cook's garden. Many Asian, South American, and African vegetables and herbs are no more difficult to grow than commonly available vegetables.

Some are cross cultural, such as cilantro, which is used in Latin, Indian, Chinese, and Middle Eastern cooking. Elvira Monsalve of Chile grows it year-round in her West Roxbury home. ''It's nice and beautiful for a few weeks, and then it dies, so I start it every two weeks, taking the seeds from the plants and saving them."

Many ethnic plants such as cilantro have already crossed over into the mainstream. ''Chili peppers and the so-called yard-long Chinese green beans (or asparagus beans) are in supermarkets now and chayote squash is sold at organic supermarkets," noted Jeremy Dick, community garden services manager for the Boston Natural Areas Network.

Four percent of the state's population is Asian and there's a lot of very intriguing Asian produce at supermarkets now, but much of it is still home grown. Jeremy Liu of the Asian Community Development Corporation calls the Berkeley Street Community Garden ''the most authentic and vibrant expression of Asian culture anywhere in Boston. The elderly can get physical and mental exercise and talk with their neighbors and preserve the culture. The amount of stuff they grow is amazing. I've seen winter melons weighing 50 pounds that you can cut open and use for soups and it will last all winter."

Another Asian favorite is bitter melon. A group of artists and community activists are currently organizing a Bitter Melon Week and signing up South End restaurants to feature this on their menus at the end of July (visit siftingtheinnerbelt.com for more on the project).

Jilo (Solanum gilo) is another cross-cultural vegetable, savored in parts of Brazil, where it was brought with the slave trade, and in its native West Africa, where it is known as ''garden eggs." This is one of the vegetables grown by local immigrants from Ghana, Liberia, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Cameroons who are forming production cooperatives with help from the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project with the Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition, Science and Policy, teaming with Community Teamwork Inc. in Lowell.

The Worcester African Cooperative Group and the Lowell-based New England African Farmers Cooperative will be selling West African vegetables this summer at farmer's markets in Worcester, Lowell, and East Boston.

''There are 18 countries in Latin America where Spanish is the official language, but there can be strong differences in what they want to grow. For instance, Puerto Ricans don't like hot peppers. They grow sweet peppers," said Frank Mangan, an extension assistant professor in the UMass department of plants, soil & insect sciences who works with farmers growing crops popular with immigrant populations. (Visit worldcrops.org for more information.)

One group he works with is Nuestras Raices (''Our Roots"), a nonprofit in Holyoke that grows Puerto Rican vegetable seedlings and produce that involves 95 families in eight community gardens. Jaimie Iglesias is one of the founders. ''We do the real plants from Puerto Rico that my relatives and friends send seeds for, and we sell the plants and produce to our gardeners, to the neighbors, and to people from different towns such as Springfield and Chicopee."

Not all ethnic seeds are commercially available because of a long tradition of taking the seeds from the ripe vegetables themselves, which breed true (if they haven't cross pollinated). You can do the same by purchasing ripe vegetables from ethnic markets and using their seeds.

© Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company