Since childhood, the
only vegetable I enjoyed the most has been bitter gourd or karela is what we
call. As soon as we hear the name karela! memory gets populated with a
sense of its smell and taste of its bitterness. Eww! this is the only expression
I have ever come across when it came to this particular veggie. I remember,
nobody in our house used to like this one. It was only me and mama who used to
relish every bite of it. Hashim always felt hesitant about this underdog
veggie. But not anymore! one of the best things about our relationship is the
diversity in tastes due to the difference in our cultures. On mama's side, the
influences were veggies and little sweet versions of food. And his side, he
takes pride in his pakistani cuisine and there were often differences in the
name and etymology of certain dishes, for instance, hashim would call scrambled
egg as anda ghotala, and I would call it egg bhurji and hashim would say, well
it's the Indian version.