It should be said up front: The Mexican sour gherkin is technically not a cucumber but more of a very very close relative, however, that’s for someone else to discuss. The sour gherkin has many names, including "cucamelon," "mouse melon" and, in Spanish, "sandita" or little watermelon.
Why is this important you may ask? Not only is this little guy slyly showing up in popular food blogs across the web but in restaurants as well. Beefsteak, a vegetarian fast-casual restaurant based in the Foggy Bottom area of D.C. near George Washington University has highlighted the vegetable. These bites sized babies frame a dish of sprouts and have been a hit.
So what is the sandita? Besides being literally the cutest vegetable to exist, it’s native to Central America and Mexico. It has been a staple of Mexican and Central American diets since pre-Columbian times, hence its great array of names in indigenous languages. These people also use the melon in nonculinary ways, including in medicine, yet little of this information can be found in mainstream literature about these uses.
It’s about the size of a grape and surprisingly can be planted at home. It can only be reproduced by seeds, and possibly by root cuttings. While you won’t find a bush of it growing on the side of the road, the upside to this is that you can literally buy the seeds online and grow it in your dorm if you’d like.
They are good in salads, stir-fried, pickled or just eaten whole as a nice and juicy snack. It can also be used to garnish drinks. Often used as a replacement to the olive in a martini. It has a bright, tart flavor that’s a bit bolder than a cucumber. Essentially, it tastes like a cucumber soaked in lime juice.
So, the next time you’re at your local farmers market or looking for a new plant to grow at home, check out the sandita. You won’t be disappointed.