I was watching an episode of Billions tonight where I could only describe one scene as “ANGRILY EATS SANDWICH”
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Which country’s breakfast is this?
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My new linked in bio blurb.
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I wasn’t going to say anything, but you asked. I’m not a master of the curcubit arts, but I’ve grown my share of cucumbers, melons, and squashes.
Cucumber vines have male and female flowers on the same plant. Only the female flowers grow fruit. The male flowers only produce pollen, and only the female flowers have the ovary that grows into the fruit.
However! The flowers themselves are edible. You can sometimes find them at a farmer’s market. You would harvest male flowers from a vine if it wasn’t producing enough female flowers and you wanted a bigger yield. You may want to harvest female flowers if the vine was fruiting too vigorously and you wanted fewer, bigger fruits come harvest.
Typically, you’d batter and fry the flowers. However, in a food crisis, it’s obviously any port in a storm. Whatever is available. I could certainly see that a raw male flower, or maybe a female flower with an undeveloped fruit, would be bitter. Curcubits can be bitter even when ripe, and most fruits don’t develop their sugars until later in the season.
Not knowing your family, their situation, or Russian, my wild-ass guess is that they were eating squash blossoms without the means to prepare them as normal. Or perhaps unripe cucumbers, though those typically can be harvested and palatable at any size.
If what they had were actually bitter squashes, then they may have been lucky. Wild squashes and some hybrids are toxic. Domesticated squashes have had that toxin bred out of them. Every few years someone in the West is sickened by toxic squash syndrome, typically in a heavily spiced dish like a soup that masks the bitter taste of the toxin.
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Mostly it seems cucumbers turn bitter when they’re fertilized and or stressed, and the flowers of all edible squash are super tasty (we last made them with pumpkin flowers in October).
The toxic squash things happens when the plants are cross-fertilized with non-edible versions, which is why unless you’re a really good gardener, it’s not suggested to harvest and replant squash seeds, just roast and eat them.
This blog has a suggestion for de-bittering cucumbers…
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I’ve met broccoli breeders, wouldn’t be surprised if there really are cucumberologists 
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Huh! Looks like I may have to update my thinking. I had always believed that a squash fruit would not develop unless the flower was fertilized. This suggests that the fruit will develop regardless, though I suppose the resulting seeds would not be fertile. Thanks!
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Looks like Canada. Labrador, more specifically.
I know courgettes/zucchini don’t grow properly unless fertilized, cucumbers have been bred to only have female flowers, so it seems they can (surprised me too).
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I don’t know how you do it. I’m very glad you do.
That is all.
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My “special breakfast I wish I made more” is Malaysian-style congee. Delicious and clears out the fridge of all the leftover bits while they’re still yummy. Roast chicken, various veg, green onions, eggs, soy sauce, chili sauce, and just a touch of sesame oil. Washed down with far-too-strong tea. Bliss.
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I’m not even sure what I did, but it is nice to be appreciated.
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Took a smart and funny answer, and made it smarter and funnier. Thank you.
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Don’t you worry. There are.
Also, thank you @atteSmythe and @nick_warr.
It’s not only interbreeding and stress which causes higher concentration of carefully out-bred bitterness. Many of the commercial plants got buy for your gardens are hybrids, and their offspring tend to fall back to old habits. Mendelian, I know. Old school.
There are cases of people poisoning themselves by eating Cucurbitaceae. One which got some news coverage in Germanphone areas was a 79 years old gardener from Heidenheim who died, in 2015. 2017, an elderly lady from Rendsburg needed treatment in hospital. Those cases are very rare, but elderly people are at a higher risk due to a change in palate - they aren’t that susceptible to bitterness.
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Seem to have found the compilation by accident:
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Came here to be disappointed in the preparation for my nations dish. Was not disappointed.
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