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Cucamelon, Mexican sour gherkin, mouse melons, sandiita ... this dinky mini watermelon lookalike that goes by many names originally hails from Mexico and Central America, but these days it's just as at home on social media.
With its own hashtag, #cucuamelon, has found the limelight on Instagram for its appealing photogenic qualities. Grape–sized and with a mottled watermelon-coloured skin, they may be small fruit, but they come with big appeal and interesting eating potential.
Cucamelons in the Kitchen
The name cucamelon seems to have stuck as an apt description of the look and feel of the mild fruit with a cucumber flavour and added citrus sourness. Cucuamelons are, however, a native fruit to Latin America of the 'Melothria scabra' genus and are confusingly not a hybrid at all.
Their versatility in the kitchen includes stir–fries, pickling, eating raw, chopped into salsas or even speared and popped inside cocktails.
Cucuamelons can be easily grown at home, cultivated in tubs, pots, or growbags and take around two to three months to mature on an attractive vine.
Here's a look at a few enticing uses of this bijoux fruit.
