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kay · 04-01-2011, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sacha[_4_]

On 2011-01-03 17:37:01 +0000, Mike Lyle said:

On Mon, 3 Jan 2011 11:21:44 -0000, "Joan Edington"
wrote:

We were on holiday in the Costa Blanca region of Spain this Christmas and
came across a strange plant. It had tough green pods about 4 inches in
length and roughly the shape of a pepper, at the end of long vine-like
branches. The leaves were arrow-head shapes and a bit shorter. Since there
were no flowers at this time of year I haven't been able to identify the
plant from any of my sources. Has someone out there any idea what these are,
please? I'd love to know what they may look like in spring or summer. I've
attached a small photo, hoping that's allowed on this group. If not, I
apologise.
Thanks and a happy new year,
Joan

I think it's what we used to call a "choko" in Aus. "Cho-cho" in
India, "chayote" and "christophene" elsewhere. If that's what it is,
it's very bland: peel, remove big seed in the middle, then treat like
its relative the vegetable marrow, though I imagine there are better
recipes from India.

I've never heard of it before but found this on Googling:
BBC - Food - Recipes : Fried christophine with corn on the cob

If you could post your pic on a site where pictures are allowed (eg Flickr) and post a url here, it would be very useful.

I feel dubious about the chayote id, as googling doesn't show up any suggestion that it'd be growing in Europe..