SC - Watermelon
david friedman
ddfr at best.com
Fri May 2 20:02:33 PDT 1997
>My apologies to everyone on the list. I have just completed some more
>investigation and the watermelon did, indeed, origionate in North Africa and
>was brought to the Americas. I still wonder about whether it was sweet or
>whether ours today is a descendant of the bitter melons I mentioned above.
>
>Linneah
>who can sometimes be too quick to show her limited knowledge
Ibn Battuta talks about delicious melons. It seems clear from that and
other period Islamic references that there were a variety of different old
world melons, many of which were not bitter. As to watermelon in
particular, I can't say, but I see no reason to identify it with the bitter
melon you mentioned.
Modern Chinese cooking uses something called bitter melon, but I see no
reason to assume it is the same as what you mentioned.
David/Cariadoc
http://www.best.com/~ddfr/
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