Calabash
Categories: Vegetable-like fruits | Chinese cuisine | Arabic words
| Calabash | ||||||||||||||
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| Image:Courge encore verte.jpg Green calabash on the vine | ||||||||||||||
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| Lagenaria siceraria (Molina) Standl. |
- This article is about one of the plant species by this name. For other uses, see Calabash (disambiguation).
The calabash (not to be confused with the calabaza) is a vine grown for its fruit, which can either be harvested young and used as a vegetable or harvested mature, dried, and used as a bottle, utensil, or pipe. For this reason, one of the calabash subspecies is known as the bottle gourd. The fresh fruit has a light green smooth skin and a white flesh.
The calabash was one of the first cultivated plants in the Americas, grown not for food but as a container.
The calabash is frequently used in southern Chinese cuisine as either a stir-fry or in a soup. The Chinese name for calabash is hulu (Simplified Chinese: 葫芦; Traditional Chinese: 葫蘆; pinyin: húlu) or huzi (Chinese: 葫子; pinyin: húzi). In Japan, where it is known as kampyō, it is sold in the form of dried, marinated strips. It is used in place of seafood in a form of vegetarian makizushi (rolled sushi).
In Italian cuisine, it is known as cucuzza (plural cucuzzi).
The shoots, tendrils, and leaves of the plant may also be eaten as greens.
Chinese mythology
The wu luo, or calabash, is an ancient remedy for health. In the old days the doctors would carry medicine inside so it has fabled properties for healing. The wu luo is believed to absorb negative earth-based qi (energy) that would otherwise affect health and is a very traditional Feng Shui cure.