Hong Galbi BBQ House - Los Angeles (Koreatown)

I had driven past Hong Galbi BBQ House many times and mentally made a note to check it out some day. So, when Jin of Seeking Food uploaded some yummy-looking pictures of Korean pork ribs, I insisted we go for lunch next time she had a craving. This was not one of the ubiquitous all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue restaurants dotting Koreatown. Not that there's anything wrong with that; as you know, I'm a frequent customer at such establishments.

Hong Galbi BBQ House specializes in broiled pork ribs. Lunch specials feature the ribs with rice pots or stew for about $30. Not all-you-can-eat prices, but enough to feed two people so it evens out.

Dib Iab Ntim Nqaij Hau Ua Kua (Hmong Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup with Ground Pork, Cilantro, and Scallions)

In my experiment to Make Bitter Melon Less Bitter, the last recipe I made was Hmong Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup with Ground Pork, Cilantro, and Scallions. Most of the steps were the same as Canh O/Kho Qua Nhoi Thit (Vietnamese Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup), except I used cilantro and scallions in place of the vermicelli noodles and tree ear fungus. I also added a few stalks of lemongrass to the broth.

The cilantro, scallions, and lemongrass gave the Hmong bitter melon soup a fresher, "greener" flavor, if you will. I love finding variations for familiar dishes and discovered this version in "Cooking from the Heart: The Hmong Kitchen in America" by Sami Scripter and Sheng Yang. The dish is called Dib Iab Ntim Nqaij Hau Ua Kua in Hmong.

The original recipe seemed pretty bland (only 1/2 tsp for six bitter melons), had no fish sauce (which I think the Hmong in Vietnam would have used), and suggested MSG (which I don't add to my cooking). So obviously, I made adjustments and scaled down the recipe. Still, this version was a lovely variation to add to my collection of bitter melon recipes.

Chinese Bitter Melon Stir-Fry with Ground Pork and Black Bean Sauce

While experimenting with several ways to reduce the bitterness of bitter melon, reader Gabriel Ocasio suggested on my Wandering Chopsticks Facebook page to salt the bitter melon and then stir-fry it with black bean sauce. So that's what I did.

Perhaps I've been going about this all wrong? Instead of making bitter melon the star of a dish, if I just treated it as any other squash and stir-fried it with meat and sauce, the bitterness wouldn't be so prominent? Because this recipe was my favorite of the four bitter melon recipes I cooked that day. The salting reduced the bitterness so there was just a slight tinge, which was balanced by the sweetness of the smidgen of sugar and the saltiness of the black bean sauce.

O/Kho Qua Xao Trung (Vietnamese Bitter Melon Egg Stir-Fry)

Since I was on a quest to find ways to reduce the bitterness of bitter melon, I remembered that my ba noi (Vietnamese paternal grandmother) had taught me to do just that long ago. At the time though, I didn't realize it was to reduce the bitterness, I just figured it was another step in cooking as she instructed me the kitchen. Afterward, she taught me to stir-fry the bitter melon with eggs.

For this version, I added the fish sauce to the eggs first, like I do with my Scrambled Egg Omelet recipe since the flavor would be retained more in the eggs than in the bitter melon. The bitter melon was still crunchy, only slightly bitter, a perfect foil to the soft, saltiness of the scrambled eggs.

How to Make Bitter Melon Less Bitter

Every few years, I attempt to eat Canh O/Kho Qua Nhoi Thit (Vietnamese Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup) again, hoping that this time, it'll grow on me. And every other time, the bitterness of bitter melon is just too much, but I keep trying because it's pretty much the only Vietnamese food that I can't eat.

So I thought I'd try to lessen the bitterness. Not remove it completely, but at least tone down it enough that I can eat it. I figured if I parboiled the bitter melon and dumped the bitter brew before making it into soup, that might reduce the bitterness a little.

I turned to my Wandering Chopsticks Facebook page to ask if any of my readers had tried that and whether it worked and received another tip to salt it as well. So here you go, two ways to lessen the bitterness of bitter melon.