Karela cousin

I found this new veggie in MK Ahmed, I asked him for the name. I never could catch it. It looked like a cross between a rat and a karela and a jackgruit. It had the texture of karela, size and tail of a rat and shape of a really tiny jackfruit :-) I cooked it today and ... it was yummy!! or what! but what is it? enquiries with a few mallu friends( MK ahmed is a mallu store) turned out nothing. Then i tell my mum that I am eating this wonderful yummy sweet version of karela, she say yeahhhhhhhh ur granpa used to get it from our fields when we were young! ok! it turns out it is more of a Konkani veggie than a mallu one. but still no name.. so I go to google and type in "karela cousin" and there it is :-) ITs called KANTOLA!!!

photo by Sivahari.
. Its also called spicky gourd, some are callin it Indian gourd, aakakrakaya it telgu itseems. It's called ghee korola in Bengali... dono what it Konkani or Kannada..

nice to find someone who faced the same questions about life as me....http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=79369...

Just fry it with salt and chilli powder and a lil bit of oil. Its really yummy stuff that! wonder why its not more popular that it is !!!