Wordful Wednesday: The Most Interesting Gourd In The World

As far as I'm concerned, summer is over. The only things I'll keep from summer are the vegetables that my Chinese neighbor keeps giving to me.

They are SO delicious.

AND...

Would ya look at that?

Don't worry, I'm not gonna blog about tomatoes. It's been done before. You could say the subject is "fleshed out." Hyuck, hyuck.

What I want to talk about is this brilliant gourd. It's English name is "Calabash" or "Bottle Gourd" and the Chinese call it "Hulu". No, no relation of the online video streaming site (I checked), except perhaps the color scheme.

 My neighbor said that in the "old days" people would hollow it out, cut off the top, and use it as a baby's bottle. She could totally be screwing with me, but even so I think it's a pretty fascinating concept. She said it's also used as a cup for scooping, drinking, and serving meals. Smart!

I ran across this on Pinterest the other day and I couldn't help but think how dumb we Americans are.

Picture and recipe from BetterRecipes.com

 We think if we hollow out a vegetable and serve mayonaisey dip in it we're being clever. Maybe even resourceful. Look, I'm eating my bowl!

I'll be honest. I get positively giddy if I'm given a cocktail in a hollowed out pineapple or coconut. Pop a little umbrella in it and I just might go to the moon. But as fun as those little umbrellas may be, they are merely a frivolous addition to island whimsy.

Listen to what other parts of the world are doing with the Calabash Gourd. It's pretty dang amazing. Take that, you frivolous pineapple.

Guys, I researched it. This gourdy gourd is amazing. In parts of India, "the dried, unpunctured gourd is used as a float (called surai-kuduvai in Tamil) to learn swimming in rural areas." (quote from here). What do you think about me showing up to our local pool with a couple of these suckers? They said we can't bring floaties but they never said anything about gourds.

It is also used in India to make instruments like the tanpura, the sitar, and the rudra veena.  I'm thinking about making my little brother a rudra veena for Christmas. It could be a nice addition for his band.

Photo found on the Wikipedia Commons 

Another thing you can use it for is a birdfeeder. This, would definitely go on Pinterest as long as it was decorated correctly and photographed nicely. You know the drill.

Ok, now is the moment of our discontent, maybe. Did I bore you by blogging about vegetables? I kind of expect you to say yes. And that's ok. I didn't plan to research the Calabash Gourd. It just sort of happened. And now that I've started I just can't stop.

Give me more gourd! Of the Calabash sort!

Ok, we're almost done. I promise.

The last thing about this veggie is this: if it had a celebrity look-alike it would most definitely be Kim Kardashian. Meet Cim Calabashian.

That is all. Thank you for listening to me talk about a vegetable for five minutes. Have a lovely day.