Bitter gourds come in all sizes. They are often quite big. That’s why it makes sense to split the gourd and cook in two different flavours.

I have already mentioned how you could/should remove excessive bitterness from this vegetable on this page. Just fry it in oil a bit, then soak in hot water and drain. This will get rid of the excessive bitter taste.

The dish above was cooked in spicy bean sauce 辣豆瓣酱 with a few cubes of sugar. The dish below was fried with eggs and seasoned with a sachet of ginger sugar and salt. As the bitter gourd had already been fried in oil, I did not add anymore oil to either dish. Both taste wonderful. Even if your kids don’t like bitter gourd, they may like this.